Amid Antitrust Scrutiny, Compass Ceo Reffkin Says Mlss Are ‘anti-consumer’

Even as the House Judiciary Committee has asked that Compass International Holdings to explain its partnership with Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) over concerns it could reduce consumer transparency and competition, and the New York attorney general’s office is allegedly probing the firm’s acquisition of Anywhere over antitrust concerns, CEO Robert Reffkin argues that Compass is one of the few companies in housing actively increasing competition.

“We are infusing competition in real estate. I believe in competition. Not only does the law require companies to compete, but competition is the bedrock of our economy,” Reffkin said on Compass International Holding’s second quarter earnings call with investors and analysts Tuesday night. “Competition is the engine that produces the most value and options for consumers.”

The MLS is ‘anti-consumer’

According to Reffkin, one of the largest things preventing competition in the industry is the multiple listing service, which he argues does not compete and instead “abuse their power by creating mandatory rules and they enforce with MLS fines up to $5,000 that every real estate professional and their sellers are expected to follow.”

“Real estate professionals have no ability to push back because they need access to MLS to do their job,” Reffkin said. “That is because, over the past 100 years, all real estate professionals have been conditioned to use the MLS to market a listing to other real estate professionals. Without access to [the] MLS, you can’t access the listing data for your buyers. In almost all markets, agents have only one choice for multiple listing services, making that single MLS in that market a monopoly that agents need to use to do their jobs.”

Reffkin argues that it is this market power that has “empowered” MLSs to levy these fines and “punish” agents and private businesses despite being private entities themselves. In his view, the MLS has been “weaponized” against agents, as it fines them and punishes them if they “compete too hard.” 

“The untold secret in real estate is that the MLS is controlled by a collection of our competitors that tell us how we can and cannot compete,” he said. “They are telling us how we can and cannot compete. What other private business is told how to compete by a collection of their competitors? This is anti-competitive. This is anti-consumer. It’s illegal.” 

According to Reffkin, MLSs should have to compete for an agent or broker’s business in the same way agents have to compete for clients. It is this competition, Reffkin argues, that prevents real estate agents or brokerages from fining or punishing each other for competing in ways others may not like. 

Compass the bringer of competition

Reffkin told those on the call that he and his firm are working to change this by bringing competition to the MLSs and the real estate portals, stating that the MLS that choose not to compete will “fail.” 

“Everything Compass has done in the past and everything it is doing today is designed to infuse competition into MLS and portals in real estate. Why? Because if multiple listing services and the dominant portal have to compete like real estate professionals and brokerages have to compete every day, consumers and the agents that represent them win,” Reffkin said. “This is why I am supporting multiple listing services and portals that compete for our real estate professionals. I am working to inject competition in the MLS and portal ecosystem.” 

During the call, Reffkin cited Compass’s partnership with Rocket-Redfin on its coming soon listings, as well its agreements to send all of its listings to MLSs like MRED, Realtracs, Bright MLS and The MLS/CLAW. Reffkin argued that Compass’s partnership with Redfin is what caused Zillow to “discontinue” its ban on coming soon listings marketed off of its platform. Zillow has since clarified that its Listing Access Standards Policy is still in place and being enforced. 

Additionally, Reffkin claimed that Compass’s partnerships with those MLSs have inspired the MLSs to “compete” by “offering more flexible rules that let home sellers and their agents determine where and how to market their own properties.” 

“MLSs that are expanding recognize that if they want to get agents in new markets to sign up to their MLS, they can’t expand with more restrictive rules and fines. Instead, they need to compete with more marketing options and more marketing flexibility that helps listing agents and their sellers, as opposed to helping the dominant portal,” he said. “Every month, we are seeing more and more MLSs competing in ways that help our clients, our agents and our company.” 

Compass’s competitive edge

For Reffkin, an increase in competition will only help Compass by further empowering its three-phased marketing strategy, allowing Compass to “unlock the full potential” of its business model. In the most recent week, Reffkin said that across the Compass brand, 57% of all new listings are employing the three-phased marketing plan. 

“By the end of the third quarter, I would expect 80% of Compass brokerage listings to launch as a coming soon on Compass.com and Redfin, and the total number of coming soons to build from there as we expand the offering to all of our brands,” he said. 

Reffkin highlighted the Chicago market as an example of how “flexible” MLS rules and its three-phased marketing strategy can work together to give Compass a competitive boost. According to Compass, visitor sessions on Compass.com, specifically in Chicago where the firm said it has the most coming soon listings, were up 111% annually in Q2 2026.  

“It shows what happens in a free market without restrictions, without fines, without bans. What it shows you is, why wouldn’t an agent put it on their sites first? What’s the downside? What seller doesn’t want the agent to get their own buyer, the buyer inquiries and to deal with them directly?” he said. 

When asked about goals for site traffic to Compass.com, Reffkin said he did not believe it was unreasonable to “expect that the company that has the most listings in the United States is the number one place people search [for listings] in the United States.” 

“I think the only reason that is not the case is because there are mandatory rules that are forcing listing agents to give up their data and their clients’ data and give up their content to third-party platforms,” Reffkin said. “As these rules go away, because we believe they are beyond anti-competitive and they’re illegal [since] the MLSs are a collection of our competitors who are telling us how we can and cannot compete — as those go down, agents will just put them on our sites, then people will search where the inventory is.”