In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →California Regional Multiple Listing Service, known as CRMLS, has sued the brokerage Compass in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the trade publication Inman reported on 6 October 2026. The listing service is not asking for damages. It is asking a federal judge to declare that two of its own rules, the ones that carry out the Clear Cooperation Policy of the National Association of Realtors, are lawful under federal and California antitrust law.
The filing came at the end of a four-week countdown. Compass had written to CRMLS and to other listing services on 8 September, according to Inman, giving them until 5 p.m. Eastern time on 6 October to stop penalising agents who publicly market listings that are kept inside one brokerage. By the time that deadline passed, a second large service, Unlock MLS in Austin, Texas, had also said no, Real Estate News reported on 7 October. Compass told that publication it intends to sue both.
Nothing has been decided. What follows is what each side says, as the trade press reports it.
CRMLS enforcement figures as reported by Inman, 7 October 2026.
What CRMLS asked the court to do
According to Inman, the complaint has two causes of action, and both seek a declaration rather than a penalty. The first asks the court to find that CRMLS Rules 7.9 and 7.9.1 are lawful under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the federal statute. The second asks for the same finding under the Cartwright Act, which is California's antitrust law. CRMLS also asks for a permanent injunction that would bar Compass from pursuing antitrust claims over those two rules, and for its attorneys' fees and costs.
Related readNew South Wales agents' rules of conduct: duties, disclosure, penaltiesThe suit was filed in New York, where Compass is headquartered, Inman reported. HousingWire described Compass International Holdings on 8 October as the entity formed by the merger of Compass with Anywhere Real Estate.
Two details of the filing are reported differently from one source to the next, and they are given here as the sources give them. Inman's report of 6 October dates the filing to 5 October, one day before the Compass deadline. Inman's follow-up of 7 October refers to Monday 6 October, although the Monday of that week was 5 October. Real Estate News carried its own report of the suit in an article dated 5 October. On length, Inman describes a 37-page complaint, while Real Estate News describes one of 119 pages.
One thing is absent from it. When CRMLS answered Compass on 30 September, its letter listed seven claims it might bring if it were sued, among them a group boycott claim under the Cartwright Act, unfair competition, interference and breach of fiduciary duty. Inman reported that none of the seven appears in the complaint as filed.
The two rules at the centre of the case
Rule 7.9 is CRMLS's version of the Clear Cooperation Policy. The National Association of Realtors adopted that policy in November 2019, according to its published policy page. It says that a listing broker must submit a listing to the multiple listing service within one business day of marketing the property to the public. The association's page defines public marketing broadly: yard signs, flyers, public websites, email blasts, multi-brokerage sharing networks and public-facing apps all count.
Related readNSW agents query Centrepay rent fee as card surcharge ban beginsRule 7.9.1 is the exception. Inman describes it as the "No Cooperation Listing": a broker who has been retained exclusively may keep a listing inside the brokerage, without submitting it to the service, as long as the property is not publicly marketed. The association's policy calls this kind of listing an office exclusive, and requires a signed certification from the seller.
The dispute sits between those two rules. A listing may stay private within one brokerage, or be advertised to the public and submitted to the service. What CRMLS does not allow is a listing advertised to the public while withheld from the service, which is what Compass wants agents to be free to offer when a homeowner asks for it.
The national policy has already been loosened once. On 25 March 2025 the association announced a companion policy called Multiple Listing Options for Sellers, according to its own news release. It took effect at once, and listing services had until 30 September 2025 to put it in place. It created "delayed marketing exempt listings", for which each service sets its own delay period, and it requires a signed disclosure from the seller.
How the dispute reached a courtroom
The sequence below is drawn from Inman and Real Estate News. It ran for less than a month.
- 8 SeptemberCompass sends demand letters to CRMLS and other listing services, with a deadline of 5 p.m. Eastern on 6 October.
- 30 SeptemberCRMLS rejects the demand and announces a legal defence fund. The same day, the Compass chief executive tells an industry conference that lawsuits are planned.
- Start of OctoberCRMLS files first, in federal court in New York. Inman's first report dates the filing to 5 October.
- 6 OctoberThe deadline passes. Unlock MLS in Austin sends its own refusal through outside counsel.
- 7 OctoberA Compass spokesperson tells Real Estate News the company plans to sue Unlock and CRMLS.
The letter of 8 September threatened a federal antitrust suit seeking attorneys' fees and treble damages, and said Compass would spend millions of dollars suing CRMLS and other services, according to Inman.
CRMLS replied on 30 September in a letter from Ed Zorn, its vice president and general counsel. Inman reported that the letter rejected the demand, said counterclaims would follow any lawsuit, asked Compass to preserve documents for litigation, and announced a fund that RISMedia names as the MLS Cooperation Legal Defense Fund. Inman reported on 7 October that Mr Zorn said the fund is not meant for CRMLS alone and was still being formally organised.
Related readComplaining about a property agent in Singapore: what CEA does nextOn the same 30 September, Robert Reffkin, chairman and chief executive of Compass International Holdings, spoke at the Open House conference of the Council of Multiple Listing Services in Fort Lauderdale. He said Compass planned to file suits in mid-October against services that still fine agents for marketing office exclusives, according to Inman. The complaint says he spoke before more than 900 attendees.
What the enforcement numbers show
CRMLS gave Inman figures on how often Rule 7.9 has actually been applied. In 2025 it issued 89 fines for breaches of the rule, out of more than 271,000 listings entered that year. That is roughly three fines for every 10,000 listings. Eight of the 89 went to Compass agents, about 9 per cent.
The pace is different in 2026. CRMLS told Inman it has opened about 300 Rule 7.9 cases so far this year, and roughly 75 of them, a quarter, involve Compass for-sale properties. Ten Compass cases were open when the suit was filed, eight of them under appeal. CRMLS also said it declined to fine Compass in about 25 cases while it was putting in place a new process it calls Coming Soon Limited Exposure, which it says was created partly at Compass's request.
The two years are not measured the same way: the 2025 figure counts fines issued, the 2026 figure counts cases opened.
Each side's position
Compass's argument starts from the homeowner. Its spokesperson told the trade press that a homeowner should be able to market any listing publicly without the agent facing thousands of dollars in fines. The company points out that listing services with more than 350,000 agents across 12 states already allow public marketing of office exclusives, a figure Inman reported on 30 September as eight services in 12 states and the District of Columbia. At the Fort Lauderdale conference, Mr Reffkin said 96 per cent of office exclusives go on to become active listings on the service, and that services which change their rules would receive a release of claims and a data feed of address, status, list price and listing dates, according to Inman's report of 1 October.
Related readSingapore property cooling measures: the rounds from 2009 to 2026CRMLS's argument starts from the cooperative. Art Carter, its chief executive, told Inman by email that CRMLS had no choice but to make the filing in order to preserve the MLS cooperative. The service's lawyers say the rules allow a private listing and allow a public one, and that what they do not allow is having both at once. Mr Zorn has described the Compass proposal as free riding, Inman reported.
The complaint adds a second concern, reported by Real Estate News: that giving Compass what it asks could expose CRMLS to antitrust claims from the other direction, from buyers or buyers' agents. CRMLS also points to a precedent it reads in its favour. Compass sued Northwest MLS and settled in 2026, Inman reported, and CRMLS argues that the settlement kept the requirement that listings be submitted for cooperation before public marketing.
A lawsuit is a claim, not a finding
No court has ruled on whether Rules 7.9 and 7.9.1 are lawful. CRMLS has asked for that declaration; Compass says it will bring its own case. Until a judge decides, both positions remain allegations.
Austin's Unlock MLS gives its own refusal
Unlock MLS is owned by the Austin Board of Realtors and has more than 17,000 agent and broker subscribers, according to Real Estate News. Its reply to Compass, dated 6 October, came from outside counsel Ellen B. Sessions, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright. Unlock published the correspondence on its website, and its chief executive, Emily Girard, wrote to subscribers the same day.
The two services compare as follows.
| Point | CRMLS, California | Unlock MLS, Austin |
|---|---|---|
| Response to Compass | Rejection letter on 30 September, then a federal lawsuit | Rejection letter from outside counsel on 6 October |
| Rule in question | Rules 7.9 and 7.9.1 | The mandatory NAR rule, in its counsel's words |
| Penalty described | Fines; Compass speaks of thousands of dollars | Flat US$100; up to US$500 if left unpaid |
| Private option | No Cooperation Listing; Coming Soon Limited Exposure | Flex listings, launched in mid-2025 |
Sources: Inman, Real Estate News and RISMedia, 6 and 7 October 2026.
RISMedia reported the detail of Unlock's penalties. An agent who publicly markets a listing without submitting it pays a flat US$100, and no further compliance action follows once it is paid. If the fine stays unpaid after repeated reminders, it can rise to as much as US$500. The rules contain no power to suspend or terminate an agent for a marketing breach; suspension is possible only for failing to pay a fine that has been assessed. Ms Sessions wrote that a seller may keep a listing out of mass distribution through the service by signing a certification and paying the US$100 on time.
Related readSingapore reviews officers' home purchases near future MRT stationsUnlock's Flex programme allows a listing to be marketed privately within the service, without public internet display and without building up days on market or a history of price changes. Ms Sessions wrote that Compass helped to shape Flex, that Compass agents are leading its adoption, and that in March 2026 Compass named Unlock among the services where seller choice lives. She described Compass as one of Unlock's largest customers and said Unlock remains willing to meet, but will not set aside the mandatory rule of the National Association of Realtors for one participant.
Ms Girard told subscribers that the demand goes to the structure of the listing service itself, Real Estate News reported.
Compass read the same letter differently. Its spokesperson told RISMedia that Unlock seems to agree that agents and sellers should market as homeowners instruct, and told Real Estate News that agents should not have to pay US$100 to market a property the way its owner wants.
What is scheduled next
The next step announced by any party is Compass's own. A Compass International Holdings spokesperson confirmed to Real Estate News on 7 October that the company plans to sue Unlock, and said it will sue CRMLS in the next few weeks. No other lawsuits have been announced. A person familiar with the company's plans told Inman the same about CRMLS. Mr Reffkin said in Fort Lauderdale that if Compass is forced to sue there will be no settlement, according to Inman.
Neither listing service is commenting on the other's fight. Unlock declined to comment on the CRMLS lawsuit, and CRMLS declined to comment on Compass's stated intention to sue, Real Estate News reported. None of the reports names a judge or a hearing date.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
