Nwmls Asks Court To Dismiss Compass’s Antitrust Suit

Northwest MLS (NWMLS) is asking a U.S. District Court judge to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit filed against it by Compass in April.

In a motion to dismiss the suit for failure to state a claim, NWMLS asked for the suit to be dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent Compass from refiling it in the future.

In the motion, NWMLS claims that Compass “fails to allege a cognizable relevant market,” that its “own allegations undermine any claim of anticompetitive effects and confirm the pro-competitive nature of NWMLS’ rules,” and that the complaint alleges no harm to competition or exclusionary conduct, which is required for a monopolization claim. 

Filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the lawsuit alleges that NWMLS is a monopoly, and that its listing policy is harming competition and negatively impacting Compass by not allow for office exclusive or private exclusive listings. Compass also alleges this harms home buyers and sellers, as the policy prevents Compass from utilizing its three-phase marketing plan.

NWMLS is not Realtor-affiliated, so it does not have to follow MLS policies set forth by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), whose Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) for listings does allow for office exclusives. 

NWMLS’s rules state that in order to gain access to their competitors’ listings, NWMLS member brokers must agree to submit their own listings. 

“By demanding access to others’ listings while claiming a right to deprive other member brokerages of its own listings, Compass’ Complaint confirms the pro-competitive nature of NWMLS’ rules requiring submission of listings, which Compass’ new ‘pre-marketing program subverts,” the motion states.

“NWMLS has no antitrust or common-law obligation to promote Compass’ exclusionary, free-rider strategy. NWMLS’ rules were designed to prohibit conduct like Compass’, which destroys competition in the real estate market, harms consumers, and contravenes NWMLS’ founding purpose.”

NWMLS argues that its rules ensure that all members “have fair access to each other’s listings and eliminates the possibility that one member may extract value from others without a corresponding contribution for that value.” 

Compass has stated that nearly half of its listings outside Washington state in the first quarter of 2025 began as private exclusive, but the overwhelming majority (94%) eventually ended up in the MLS. 

NWMLS claims that Compass is using its three-phased marketing plan to steer its in-house listings to Compass-represented buyers, allowing the company to double-end the deal. But if Compass is unable to find an in-house buyer, NWMLS claims that the brokerage then puts the listing on the open market. 

“Compass, however, cannot have it both ways,” NWMLS wrote in its filing. 

The motion also calls into question how private Compass’s Private Exclusives actually are. 

“The only thing ‘private’ about the Private Exclusive phase is that Compass disseminates the listing to its 34,000 ‘nationwide’ agents and their ‘millions of buyers,’ but not to non-Compass agents, thus contradicting the Complaint’s conclusory assertions about owner security and privacy,” NWMLS wrote in a footnote in its motion.

The MLS goes on to claim that Compass wants everyone — including “millions of buyers” but not competing NWMLS member firms — to know about its private listings. 

If NWMLS’s motion to dismiss is not granted, Judge Jamal N. Whitehead has set a start date for a trial of June 8, 2026.