Compass Sues NWMLS for Antitrust Violations: Claims Unfair Control Over CCP

Compass has issued a press release stating, “In every other state, and for every other MLS, homeowners can opt to pre-market their homes before making them publicly available. Outside of Washington, homeowners may list their properties as either a Compass Private Exclusive or Compass Coming Soon, taking advantage of the pre-marketing benefits.”

In its legal filing, Compass describes NWMLS as “a monopolistic entity comprised of competing real estate brokers.”

The lawsuit further elaborates, “Virtually 100% of the residential real estate transactions conducted by real estate brokers in the Seattle area are listed on NWMLS, which faces no significant competition. Moreover, NWMLS has a vested interest in curtailing competition among Seattle’s real estate brokers as it is owned and managed by them, including some of the largest traditional brokerages in the region.”

The lawsuit accuses NWMLS of “successfully blocking any serious threats to itself and its member brokerages by implementing and enforcing a set of rules that compel anyone buying or selling a home in the Seattle area with professional assistance to use its platform.”

“If left unchecked, NWMLS will persist in its anticompetitive and wrongful behavior, which will continue to detrimentally affect homeowners, Compass, and Compass brokers in the Seattle area by limiting their choices and the unique benefits offered by Compass’s innovative products and services,” the lawsuit claims.

According to the lawsuit, Compass’s “innovative offerings” have prompted competitors in the Seattle market, including “Windermere and other traditional brokerages that own and manage NWMLS,” to adopt and enforce regulations that exclude office exclusive listings.

“Subsequently, NWMLS and its allies abolished another longstanding rule that only Compass utilized to allow its homeowners to engage in office exclusives,” the document alleges.

The filing states that in mid-July 2024, Compass requested NWMLS to amend Rule 2 to permit office exclusives.

“After seven months of lobbying for a change and attempting to engage formally in NWMLS’s rule amendment process, NWMLS flatly declined on February 28, 2025,” the document notes.

Following NWMLS’s refusal to adjust Rule 2, Compass opted to introduce a three-phase marketing plan exclusively to sellers who enter into a “non-exclusive listing agreement,” which is not recognized under NWMLS’s Rule 4 and thus not governed by its regulations. Compass alleges that shortly after, NWMLS modified the longstanding Rule 4 through an irregular procedural shortcut, requiring properties listed under a non-exclusive agreement to be submitted to NWMLS and comply with all its regulations.

Compass then turned to NWMLS Rule 6, which states “properties are not accepted by NWMLS if the home seller decides not to pay a commission to the buyer’s real estate broker.”

Compass offered this option to its Seattle-area sellers, but NWMLS quickly alleged non-compliance with its rules by Compass and terminated its IDX feed without “any warning or due process.” According to the lawsuit, this action by NWMLS adversely impacted “all Compass clients, Compass and its brokers, and homeowners by forcing them to either publicly market their properties prematurely or not list them at all.”

The lawsuit concludes that these “anticompetitive and wrongful acts perpetuate NWMLS’s market dominance, hinder competition against the traditional real estate brokerages that own and manage NWMLS, and deprive Seattle-area homeowners of the freedom, choice, and advantages provided by Compass Private Exclusives.”

Compass contends that through this purported anticompetitive and wrongful behavior, NWMLS is infringing on consumer rights by restricting their ability to freely sell and market their properties, stifling competition, reducing innovation, and further solidifying its alleged monopoly.

Compass is seeking a jury trial and is demanding damages and a permanent injunction to prevent NWMLS and its associates from “participating in, executing, renewing, or attempting to engage in the combination and conspiracy alleged herein, or any similar combination or conspiracy with the same purpose or effect in violation of” the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The conflict between Compass and NWMLS intensified earlier this spring when an exchange between Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and NWMLS CEO Justin Haag began with an Instagram post by Reffkin directly criticizing NWMLS and its CCP.

Haag informed NWMLS employees that for over 40 years, real estate brokerage firms in Washington state, as NWMLS members, have committed to sharing all property listings with the entire brokerage community and the public.

In late March, a website named Washington Homeowner Rights, supported by Compass, appeared, soliciting NWMLS home sellers for a potential class action lawsuit. The site seeks home sellers who feel “harmed” by NWMLS policies and who have faced price reductions or extended days on the market.

NWMLS has not responded to requests for comment.