NAR reaches favorable settlement with DOJ
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced today that it had settled two and one-half years of litigation with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The case revolved around “NAR’s multiple listing policy as it pertained to the display of listings from the MLS on brokers’ virtual office Web sites, or VOWs.”
The settlement confirmed that “MLS members must be actively engaged in real estate brokerage by actually helping people buy or sell homes.”
With the expansion and omnipresence of the Internet, some non-Realtors consider the MLS to be akin to a public utility that should be available to everyone. The proposed agreement invalidates that point of view and substantiates that the MLS is an information-sharing mechanism set up “to help real estate professionals find buyers for people who want to sell their homes.”