New York Attorney General Letitia James has opened an inquiry into the expanded footprint of Compass International Holdings in the state.
That’s according to a report published on Wednesday by The Real Deal that Inman has also independently confirmed.
Agents within the antitrust division of James’ office have reached out to leaders at top brokerages in New York to collect information.
Neither the attorney general’s office nor a Compass spokesperson would comment for the story.
The scope of the inquiry isn’t immediately clear, though it comes after Compass has ballooned into the largest real estate enterprise in the nation through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, the company closed on its $1.6 billion merger with Anywhere Real Estate. That merger set Compass above all other real estate enterprises by far.
That acquisition followed Compass’ purchase of @properties last year for $444 million, which came along with the brand Christie’s International Real Estate.
Compass is now so large that consumer advocates have warned the company is poised to dominate local markets and influence industry governance.
“In the five markets examined, the Compass share of unit sales ranges from 30 [percent] to 40 percent and, in terms of sales volume ($s), the percentages are even higher,” the Consumer Policy Center said in a report it released in April. “Moreover, the percentages of unit sales for its main competitors are much lower.”
In recent months, Compass has exerted its influence by partnering with local multiple listing services and pulling its listings off of Zillow.
MRED in Chicago, Realtracs in Nashville and BrightMLS in the Mid-Atlantic have each announced they would expand to allow subscribers to join no matter where they’re based. As part of those announcements, each MLS said they had partnered with Compass to ensure they have all of Compass’ listings.
Meanwhile, Compass severed its listing feed from Zillow, meaning that if the MLS also severs Zillow’s data feed, Zillow would have no access to display any listing from Compass International Holdings.
That occurred briefly in Chicago, when MRED moved last month to sever Zillow’s direct data feed. More than half of all listings in the market went dark before a judge ordered them to be temporarily restored amid a court battle between Zillow, MRED and Compass.
Realtracs has also said that it would sever Zillow’s data feed on June 8.
Investors appeared to take the report seriously, as Compass stock was down more than 10 percent midday on Wednesday.
