Mauricio Umansky, the real estate broker best known for appearing on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” claims N.A.R. has created a monopoly through its databases of listings.
The National Association of Realtors, which came to a landmark $418 million settlement last year over claims of a conspiracy to fix commissions, is facing another antitrust lawsuit — this time over who can control access to real estate listings.
Mauricio Umansky, a reality television star and a co-founder of the global brokerage The Agency, sued the trade organization in federal court on Tuesday morning. Recognizable to fans of “Buying Beverly Hills,” “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” Mr. Umansky has been at loggerheads with N.A.R. since 2020, when he first went to court, claiming that its policies for real estate listings were anti-competitive and had damaged a private database of off-market listings that he had created in Los Angeles. The named plaintiff in the lawsuit is Pocket Listing Service, the company that Mr. Umansky founded.
The suit was paused last year, when N.A.R. was dealing with its commission settlement. That pause on litigation expired at 12 a.m. Tuesday morning; Mr. Umansky had refiled his suit by 12:30 a.m.
The revival of Mr. Umansky’s claim is the latest in a flurry of litigation in the real estate industry, as agents and brokerages tussle over how and where homes for sale can be listed in the digital marketplace. Last week, Compass, which sells more homes than any of its competitors in the United States, sued Zillow, the country’s largest real estate site, which blocks any home that is not listed on its site within 24 hours from appearing there forever. Compass claims the “Zillow ban” breaks antitrust laws. Zillow’s policy echoes a long-held practice at N.A.R. that was recently relaxed.
N.A.R. has guided real estate rules in the United States for over a century, and in 2018, the Justice Department opened an investigation into its policies, including those involving listings. The federal inquiry signaled that N.A.R.’s so-called “clear cooperation” — which requires agents to enter any new home for sale into a public listing database within 24 hours of advertising it — could be considered anticompetitive.
“The Clear Cooperation 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,” an N.A.R. spokesperson said in a statement. “NAR will respond directly to the plaintiff’s claims in court.”
