{"id":896,"date":"2007-01-15T03:54:24","date_gmt":"2007-01-15T10:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=896"},"modified":"2007-01-24T14:51:45","modified_gmt":"2007-01-24T21:51:45","slug":"nar-doj-russ-russell-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/896\/nar-doj-russ-russell-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"NAR & DOJ – Russ & Russell Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russ Cofano <\/a>responded:<\/p>\n

Hi Russell,<\/em><\/p>\n

Happy to add some background here. You ask, “But aren’t the “anti-competitive policies” basically who has the right to decide how and where listings will be displayed?”<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Kinda.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

The initial DOJ complaint against NAR revolved around NAR’s initial Virtual Office Website (VOW) policy that allowed brokers to selectively “opt-out” by not allowing certain brokers to display their listings online. This would have allowed a “traditional” broker the right to effectively hand pick the firms that they don’t want to compete with online by eliminating any chance for them to have inventory to show to prospective buyers. From the DOJ’s perspective, the problem was that the under these same MLS rules, that same broker could not prohibit a particular “bricks and mortar” company from showing listings to a buyer who walked in off the street. The distinction being online vs. offline.<\/em> <\/em>NAR then amended the VOW rule and replaced it with the new Internet Listing Display (ILD) policy which changed the selective “opt-out” to a blanket “opt-out”. In other words, the broker could not selectively pick which brokers could display their listings online. Either everyone or nobody. Since the ILD policy applies across the board, NAR felt that it eliminated the anti-competitive concerns of the initial VOW policy.<\/em>At or about the same time, NAR changed its definition of “MLS Participant”. The new rule defines an MLS Participant as a broker who makes offers of compensation to and accepts such offers from other brokers. Prior to the change, an MLS Participant had only to be capable of making and accepting offers of compensation.<\/p>\n

This last issue is, I believe, the REAL issue in this case. NAR wants to define who can have access to and display listing information online as brokers who are actively working with buyers and sellers and sharing commissions via the MLS. DOJ believes this is too restrictive and that any licensed broker should be able to have such access. DOJ believes that such restrictions will stifle innovative brokers from assisting consumers in non-traditional ways.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it. Most MLSs are powerful entities when it comes to aggregation of Read more<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russ Cofano responded: Hi Russell, Happy to add some background here. You ask, “But aren’t the “anti-competitive policies” basically who has the right to decide how and where listings will be displayed?” Kinda. The initial DOJ complaint against NAR revolved around NAR’s initial Virtual Office Website (VOW) policy that allowed brokers to selectively “opt-out” by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,6,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-enduring-interest","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-realty-reality","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":908,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/908\/nar-doj-russ-russell-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":0},"title":"NAR & DOJ – Russ & Russell Part 2","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"January 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Russ Cofano responded: Russell, I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you on this subject. First, my comments should not be taken to mean that I support the DOJ's position and hope that they win. Nor do I necessarily support the NAR position with its rulemaking. As I have said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":890,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/890\/russ-russell-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":1},"title":"Russ & Russell?","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"January 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to this post, Russ Cofano (of Rain City Guide fame) wrote: \"For a division of the United States government to allege some sort of Realtor price fixing in an industry that is so overloaded (sic) with competition that it almost defies belief IS breading hate and contempt.\" In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2889,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2889\/nar-news-from-the-legal-front\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":2},"title":"NAR News From the Legal Front","author":"Dave Phillips","date":"April 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the years, NAR has had its fair share of legal battles.\u00a0 Currently, there are a few big and interesting cases involving NAR that could have dramatic impact on the real estate industry.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an update on three cases that are in the works.\u00a0 US vs NAR This is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3181,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3181\/nardoj-settlement-a-tale-told-by-an-idiot-full-of-sound-and-fury-signifying-nothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":3},"title":"NAR\/DOJ settlement: “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing…”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"After years of song and dance, the DOJ reached a settlement with the NAR that seems to have achieved absolutely nothing -- except the waste of a bunch of tax and dues money. At least that's what you would think if you read nothing but the NAR's spin. In fact,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":647,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/647\/new-nar-policy-allows-objective-exclusion-of-certain-listings-from-members-presentations-of-idx-feeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":4},"title":"New NAR policy allows “objective” exclusion of certain listings from members’ presentations of IDX feeds . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the news from NARdiGras -- from RealEstateJournal.com:A revised policy approved by the National Association of Realtors this week may make it harder for discount brokers to draw attention to homes they list for sale. The policy, approved by directors of the trade group at a convention in New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8358,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8358\/nar-idx-fubar-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":5},"title":"NAR + IDX = FUBAR Rules","author":"John Rowles","date":"May 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to Ryan's earlier post, I have spent the morning digging into the NAR's attempt to label the Google Search Engine a \"scraper\". Clearly, the intent is to stifle Realtor.com's competition. There is no other explanation for a rule that specifically targets SEO by dictating that we cannot put the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}