According to HousingWire, a federal judge has given the green light to plaintiffs in the Gibson home seller commission lawsuit to notify all Multiple Listing Services that signed onto the NAR settlement about their data-sharing obligations. The judge, Stephen Bough, approved this notification plan after the plaintiffs sought to enforce a specific requirement built into the settlement agreement.
The issue arose when Financial Business Systems, a data provider working with the Flexmls software platform, refused to hand over real estate listing and commission information that the plaintiffs needed to collect. FBS was saying it needed explicit permission from each individual MLS before releasing the data, and wasn't telling the plaintiffs which MLSs were actually refusing permission.
Judge Bough's ruling allows the plaintiffs to send notices to every MLS that opted into the settlement, reminding them that they already agreed to share this data when they signed on. This is basically saying that the MLSs can't claim ignorance or refuse now. The key part is what happens next: each MLS has seven days to file an objection with the court if they want to dispute the requirement.
If an MLS stays silent during that seven day period, their silence automatically counts as written permission for data providers like FBS to share the information with the plaintiffs. If an MLS does object, the judge will hear both sides and make a final call about whether that particular MLS has to comply.
What I am seeing locally is that these kinds of settlement enforcement mechanisms are going to keep forcing transparency in how our data flows and who can access it, which ultimately affects how deals get structured and what information buyers and sellers can rely on when making decisions. The Bay Area market moves on information, so these settlement provisions could reshape how our local MLSs operate over the next year or two.
