California Regional MLS (CRMLS) filed a lawsuit against Compass late on Monday, asking a federal court to declare that its listing cooperation rules don’t violate federal or California antitrust law.
The case, California Regional Multiple Listing Service v. Compass, Inc., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It came one day before Compass’s October 6 deadline for MLSs to stop fining agents for publicly marketing office exclusive listings.
CRMLS is the nation’s largest subscriber-based MLS, serving more than 93,000 real estate professionals. If you’re one of them, the rules at the center of this case govern how you can market your listings today.
What is CRMLS asking the court to do?
The complaint includes two causes of action. CRMLS asks the court to declare that its Cooperation Rules don’t violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act and don’t violate California’s Cartwright Act.
CRMLS is also asking for an injunction permanently barring Compass from bringing or pursuing any antitrust claim over those rules, plus attorneys’ fees and costs.
In a release, CRMLS CEO Art Carter stated:
“I want to be clear: this case is about more than defending CRMLS from a lawsuit. It is about protecting a marketplace that works for all real estate professionals and consumers. CRMLS established its rules to promote transparency, competition, and cooperation, and we believe those principles ultimately serve both the public and our broker community. Compass has rejected our reasoning and is advancing legal arguments that we believe are unfair and would allow Compass to free ride on the hard work of cooperating CRMLS subscribers – benefiting from the shared listings, data and resources of the cooperative marketplace while withholding its own publicly marketed listings from the same marketplace. We are asking the court to provide clarity and affirm that the principles of openness, transparency, and cooperation championed by CRMLS are lawful, appropriate, and equitable.”
What led to the lawsuit?
The filing responds to a September 8 demand letter Compass sent CRMLS, which asked CRMLS to “stop fining and punishing agents for publicly marketing office exclusives” and to confirm that in writing by 5 p.m. ET on October 6.
“To avoid being named as a defendant in a federal antitrust lawsuit, CRMLS must provide written confirmation,” the letter states. According to the complaint, the letter was copied to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition.
CRMLS General Counsel Ed Zorn formally rejected those demands on September 30. That same day, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin told more than 900 attendees at the Council of Multiple Listing Services conference in Fort Lauderdale that Compass would begin suing MLSs in mid-October if they didn’t commit to stop fining agents by October 6, according to the complaint.
Compass has framed the issue as seller choice.
What do the CRMLS rules actually require?
CRMLS’s Rule 7.9 requires a listing broker to submit a one-to-four-unit residential property or residential vacant lot to the MLS within one business day of marketing it to the public, if it’s under an exclusive right to sell or seller reserved listing agreement. It’s CRMLS’s version of NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy.
The complaint points to options that keep a listing off the MLS, should a seller choose to do so. This includes Rule 7.9.1, CRMLS’s “No Cooperation Listing,” which says the listing can be marketed exclusively within a brokerage without obligation to submit to the MLS. The complaint states:
“The rules thus give sellers and brokers a clear choice: keep a listing entirely within one brokerage, or market it publicly to the broader world. What the rules do not permit is having it both ways—publicly marketing a property to attract buyers while simultaneously withholding that property from the MLS cooperative and the thousands of other brokers and their buyer clients who participate in it and who do actually share their listings with the MLS cooperative.”
CRMLS’s position is that once a seller under an exclusive agreement chooses public marketing, all participating brokerages should get access to that listing through the MLS.
According to the complaint, CRMLS issued 89 fines for Rule 7.9 violations in 2025, 8 of which went to Compass agents. More than 271,000 listings were entered into CRMLS that year. In spring of 2026, those numbers began to increase. As of October 5, CRMLS has processed about 300 Rule 7.9 cases, with about 75 involving a property listed for sale by Compass.
What happens next for CRMLS agents?
CRMLS chose to go to court before Compass could. A federal judge in New York will now decide whether its cooperation rules hold up under antitrust law.
CRMLS’s rules haven’t changed. Rule 7.9 is still in effect, and fines still apply while the case moves forward.
CRMLS has also launched an MLS Cooperation Legal Defense Fund and is inviting other MLSs, consumer advocates, attorneys, vendors and industry groups to contribute.
