Husband of Real Housewives and celebrity realtor files anti-trust lawsuit over real-estate listings
The lawsuit, filed in federal court Tuesday by Umansky's now-defunct platform The Pocket Listing Service, concerns a dispute over private real estate listings often favored by celebrities and high-profile clients.
It alleges the trade body forced his platform, The PLS.com, out of the market, according to Housing Wire, and follows a recent landmark anti-trust suit where the association had to settle for $418 million.
Umansky, co-founder of global brokerage The Agency and who starred in shows The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Buying Beverly Hills and Dancing With the Stars, first filed the suit in 2020 but it was paused last year. The pause expired at 12 a.m. Tuesday and was refiled by 12.30 a.m., according to The New York Times. Umansky was married to Kyle Richards and the show followed their lives in Beverly Hills. Howevever, the two have been separated in recent months.
The initial suit claimed the association's policies when it comes to real estate listings were anti-competitive and were damaging to the private database of off-market listings he created in Los Angeles, The Times reports.
An off-market listing means a property is for sale but it is not publicly advertised. The suit is the latest in a series of litigation over how homes can be listed in the digital marketplace.
'This lawsuit is about defending innovation and consumer choice in a market long dominated by entrenched gatekeepers,' a spokesperson for Pocket Listing Service, told Housing Wire. 'We created a platform that responded to growing demand for privacy, flexibility, and discretion — particularly in highly-competitive and high-profile markets — and were met with coordinated resistance from an organization with a vested interest in preserving the status quo.'
The association controls access to most multiple listing service systems, which are used by agents to see which listings are available for their clients.
Umansky's platform was a 'much-needed' alternative to the association's 'outdated and monopolized' multiple listing services system, according to the complaint. It was designed for clients who preferred to keep their listings on the down-low.
Celebrities and high-income sellers often prefer these listings, which are also known as 'pocket listings' or 'whisper listings,' because of privacy.
The complaint 'alleges that NAR and its affiliated multiple listing services colluded to eliminate competition from PLS through the adoption and enforcement of the Clear Cooperation Policy,' Housing Wired reported.
The policy mandates that listings be submitted to the association's affiliated multiple listing services within one business day of a listing being publicly marketed. The suit alleges that this shuts down any viable private listings.
'There should be flavors for everybody, and everybody should have the choice as to what they want to pick,' Umansky said at an event last month. 'Restricting what we can and cannot do stops creativity, and it stops innovation.'
In March, the trade body rolled back some restrictions of its policy, allowing listings to be publicly marketed for a certain amount of time before being published on a multiple listing service.
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