A Los Angeles real estate agent known for appearing on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” is suing the National Association of Realtors, alleging in federal court for the second time that the trade organization’s policies for access to private home listings are damaging to competition, according to court papers obtained Wednesday.
In the antitrust complaint filed Tuesday, Mauricio Umansky, a celebrity broker and co-founder of the global brokerage The Agency, contends that the NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy controls competition in the residential real estate industry.
According to the suit, ThePLS.com — a private database of off-market listings Umansky helped create — alleges that NAR’s policies forced the startup out of the market by “preventing it from attracting a critical mass of listings sufficient to compete effectively.”
“The surge in consumer demand for pocket listings, and the rise of a listing network to market pocket listings effectively, was a competitive threat to the viability of the NAR-affiliated MLS system,” ThePLS.com alleges in the complaint, referring to the trade group’s multiple listing service.
“These market changes also threatened NAR’s ability to control competition in the residential real estate brokerage industry,” the suit filed in Los Angeles federal court contends.
In a statement, NAR said it will respond to the lawsuit in court. The organization said its policy “promotes transparency and competition in the real estate marketplace while still providing home sellers and their agents the option to list their property as an office exclusive.”
The lawsuit was first brought against NAR in 2020, but was paused last year.