(Gatineau) The Competition Bureau said it had obtained a court order as part of an investigation into potentially anti-competitive behavior by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
The Bureau said Thursday its investigation aims to determine whether CREA’s commission rules discourage real estate agents or brokers from competing to offer lower commission rates or otherwise affect competition. .
The investigation also seeks to determine whether CREA’s broker cooperation policy makes it more difficult for other listing services or smaller real estate agencies to compete.
The Bureau said the court order requires the ACI to produce records and information relevant to the investigation.
He said the investigation is ongoing and no conclusions of wrongdoing have been made at this time.
ACI has more than 160,000 members, brokers, agents and real estate salespeople.
The association said it was collaborating with the Bureau as part of this stage of the investigation.
“The CREA believes that these regulations and policies promote competition and the consumer, in particular by increasing transparency and helping real estate brokers and agents to better serve Canadian buyers and sellers of properties,” said the president of the CREA. , James Mabey, Thursday, in a separate statement.
Court documents show the Bureau’s investigation began in June, when the Competition Commissioner said he had reason to believe that CREA had engaged in conduct that interfered with real estate agents’ ability to compete.
The documents indicate that ACI owns the MLS and Multiple Listing Services trademarks and owns and operates realtor.ca, which real estate groups use to list properties for sale.
Websites like realtor.ca allow the public to view real estate listings, while MLS systems contain data only accessible to agents, such as additional listing information, area sales activity and neighborhood descriptions. . Some of this data is not publicly available for confidentiality reasons.
Access to the MLS system is a member benefit offered by real estate boards and associations.
The Competition Bureau has examined in recent years whether limited public access to these systems inhibits competition or innovation in the real estate sector.
Real estate listings on an MLS system must include an offer of a commission to the buyer’s agent, and when a listing is sold, the buyer’s agent is often paid by the seller’s agent, documents show judicial.
The documents allege that these rules reduce incentives for buyers’ agents to offer lower commissions, because if buyers do not pay their agent directly, they may be less likely to choose an agent based on its commission rate.
The Bureau alleges that the rules also incentivize buyers’ agents to steer their clients away from listings with lower-than-average commissions.
The documents also indicate that the ACI cooperation policy, which took effect in early 2024, favors large real estate agencies because of their ability to advertise to larger agent networks.
The policy requires that residential real estate listings be added to an MLS system within three days of being placed on the public market, such as through flyers, signs or online promotions.
The documents also allege that the cooperative policy puts other listing services at a disadvantage because it makes it harder for them to compete on aspects like privacy or inventory.
Investigation into the Quebec association
Last year, the Competition Bureau said it was investigating whether data-sharing restrictions from the Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers of Quebec (APCIQ) were stifling competition in the housing market.
He obtained a court order in February 2023 related to the ongoing investigation, aimed at determining whether APCIQ and its subsidiary, Société Centris, engaged in practices that harm competition or prevent the development of services innovative online brokerage in the province.
Much of the data sharing activity in question was related to an MLS for real estate in Quebec.