Florida Judge Denies Broker’s Bid To Force Nar, Mlss To Enforce Their Own Rules

A Florida court has denied a broker’s motion asking the court to compel the National Association of Realtors (NAR) along with 16 local Realtor associations and MLSs to enforce their own rules. 

On Thursday, a Florida-based U.S. District Court judge ruled in acceptance of a magistrate judge’s report and recommendations, denying plaintiff Jorge Zea’s preliminary injunction motion. 

The ruling comes after Zea failed to file an objection to the magistrate judge’s report within the objection window.

Zea runs www.snapflatfee.com, a brokerage that charges sellers a listing fee in exchange for limited services. Zea’s firm syndicates listings data to the MLS data feeds and forwards all buyer leads “regardless of their origin” directly to the seller.

In his lawsuit, which was filed in August, Zea claims that the defendants engaged in a “coordinated scheme” to restrict consumer choice and maintain elevated prices, harming his brokerage model. According to Zea, buyer’s agents associated with the defendants steer clients away from properties that offer a reduced or non-existent buyer’s agent commission. In his complaint he argues that this steering is the result of NAR and the other defendants not enforcing their own rules. 

The rules in question relate to the mandatory display of a listing broker’s contact information on the listing page in an IDX display, the commission lawsuit mandate for buyer agency agreements and the prohibition of MLS platforms from allowing users to search or filter search results by the name of the listing broker or agent, or by the amount of compensation offered. By allegedly refusing to enforce these rules, Zea claims that the defendants have competitively disadvantaged his discount-brokerage business. Due to this, he is asking the court to force the defendants to enforce their own rules. 

In his report, which was filed earlier this month, Magistrate Judge William Matthewman wrote that the motion “should be denied first on the basis that Plaintiff waited almost a year to file it after he started communicating with Defendants regarding their perceived rule violations.” 

In his ruling on Thursday, Judge William Dimitrouleas, who is overseeing the lawsuit, wrote that he agreed with the magistrate judge’s analysis and conclusions. 

In an emailed statement an NAR spokesperson wrote that the trade group “fosters a fair, transparent, and competitive real estate marketplace.”

“Steering is a prohibited practice under NAR policy and the Realtor Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics is enforced by state and local Realtor associations, and the enforcement of MLS rules are handled by each MLS. NAR has filed a motion to dismiss this case and agrees with the court’s decision to deny Plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction,” the spokesperson added.