On Friday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) responded to a lawsuit initiated by ThePLS.com — a private listing network formed by celebrity broker Mauricio Umansky and others — that surrounds the association’s rules regarding multiple listing services and how properties can be sold and marketed.
In its response to ThePLS.com’s claims, NAR denied allegations that the association controlled competition in the industry by way of its members’ ownership of MLSs. NAR denied most other allegations included in the initial complaint as well.
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ThePLS.com had alleged in a lawsuit filed in July that NAR wielded and abused its market power to “exclude new and disruptive market entrants.”
It also claimed that the growing popularity of pocket listings in recent years posed a threat to NAR and that its affiliated MLSs met privately and through NAR to discuss how to respond to that threat. As a result, the lawsuit alleged, NAR created the mandatory Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires NAR members to submit listings to the MLS within one business day of marketing a property publicly — including those listings marketing through multi-brokerage listing networks like The PLS.
ThePLS.com then went on to argue that since NAR was able to eliminate the “threat” of The PLS, which the network claims had grown to about 20,000 members, NAR “cement[ed] its ability to control competition in the market,” something ThePLS.com alleged harmed industry competition as well as consumers and was illegal.
NAR denied all of those claims in its response.
A rep for the association told Inman in an email, “The Clear Cooperation Policy promotes transparency and competition in the real estate marketplace while still providing home sellers and their agents the option to list their property as an office exclusive.”
Inman has reached out to Mauricio Umansky and will update this story if he responds.
NAR additionally argued in its new filing that ThePLS.com’s claims lacked standing because ThePLS.com has not suffered any antitrust injury — its members also, at least in part, participated in the conduct that The PLS is objecting to, NAR alleged. The association also argued that the Clear Cooperation Policy and other conduct by NAR named in the lawsuit are all legal.
“The NAR policy and NAR conduct identified in PLS’s amended complaint are lawful, justified, procompetitive, pro-consumer; are carried out in NAR’s legitimate business interests; and constitute bona fide competitive activity, the benefits of which outweigh any alleged anticompetitive effects,” the response by NAR states.
Despite NAR attempting to resolve the private listing debate earlier this year by making the determination to keep the Clear Cooperation Policy while launching a new listing option for agents and brokers in the Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings option, the industry continues to argue over how homes should be marketed for sale.
ThePLS.com also filed a similar lawsuit against NAR in 2020 when the association first adopted the Clear Cooperation Policy. The case was dismissed in mid-2024, such that it could be reopened at a later date.
Update: This story was updated after publication with a statement from NAR.
