The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit against an MLS that hid listings by discount brokers is over. It is an illegal restraint of trade for an MLS to hide or disadvantage flat fee MLS listings. Albert Hepp testified in the original 2007 case, where the MLS won. It was reversed on appeal in a unanimous 4-0 ruling of a four Judge panel, and then the US Court of Appeals agreed that hiding listings was illegal. The Realcomp MLS then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, and the Court just announced that it will not review the ruling.
The impact of this case was felt far and wide in the real estate industry among Multiple Listing Services (MLSs). A few "bad actor" MLSs adopted rules that prohibited or made difficult listing properties for a flat fee. A handful of flat fee Brokers banded together to seek enforcement of Fair Trade and anti-trust laws from both the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Federal Trade Commission. Both the FTC and DOJ became actively involved in forcing MLSs to allow competition between flat fee MLS and traditional Realtors.
Fortunately, MLSs had stopped this kind of anti-competitive activity by 2008 due to the FTC & DOJ interest. Now, flat fee MLS listings are an accepted form of competition within the Realtors MLS.
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