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On Tuesday, the TorontoMLS posted a news release stating the Competition Tribunal has dismissed the case against the Toronto Real Estate Board. It’s reported that the Competition Bureau has lost due to a technicality, that the complaint filed back in May of 2011 should have been filed under a different section of the Competition Act. Since it had been an unclear instance of anti-competitive behaviour to begin with, the Competition Tribunal has allowed the TREB to keep current policies in place. Due to the fact that the Bureau initially erred in filing the case, there is the possibility of an appeal. However, it looks as if the Bureau must regroup before coming back the Competition Tribunal.
Overview of the Case
The tension between the Competition Bureau and the Toronto Real Estate Board originated because TREB was accused of acting anti-competitively by keeping data from non-license third party service websites. In retaliation, TREB claimed to upholding strict privacy laws by protecting sellers’ and purchasers’ personal information, an argument victorious in the end.
During the trial, the Bureau noted that there were five agencies earning more than 70% of all commissions a year, 40% of which shared between RE/MAX and Royal LePage. These statistics were used to request that other web-based third parties earn the right to use data currently imprisoned by the MLS, so that the annual commission rates may diversify.
The Virtual Office Website (VOW) Policy
By dismissing the case, the Competition Tribunal has allowed the Toronto Real Estate Board to keep their existing VOW policy in place. While the bureau argued zealously that third party websites should be allowed to set-up password protected sites, using information from the MLS to provide customers with in-depth property details, the rights to this information remains with the MLS and nowhere else.
On August, 25th, 2011, the VOW policy was first approved, ensuring the supervision, oversight, and accountability of all MLS listing data by Realtor members. There are avenues such as land registry which are and always have been available to the general public to check if they are interested in finding out sold price information but it isn’t organized as a REALTOR can provide and with ease. The functionality of collecting and reporting the property information with ease is an investment of REALTOR community over the past twenty years.
A point worth noting is that RE/MAX and Royal LePage have the most amount of full time real estate agents working for them hence, of course, will be generating the most amount of business. Another point worth noting is that RE/MAX has 609 offices across Canada out of which 209 belong in Ontario and employ over 15,000 agents and a similar story with Royal LePage as well (I wasn’t able to get numbers from their website). All these offices and agents compete with each other for every dollar that they earn. The combined competition of these agents as well the ability for sellers and buyers to conduct business privately is what I define as a free market.
I realize that there might be changes coming that I won’t agree with but, as this professional has taught me, I will roll with the punches and adapt our services to best serve my clients.
I’d love to hear what your thoughts are. Please leave your comments below.
