Lawsuit targets REBNY listings system

Should REBNY be allowed to dictate which technology company its members use to access its listings system?

Lala Wang, who has battled the Real Estate Board of New York for the better part of a decade over listings, thinks not.

Last month, Wang, who heads Klickads Inc., a multiple-listings service company that does business under the name BrokersNYC, filed suit charging REBNY with breaking federal and state antitrust laws. The suit filed in the Southern District of New York also named others, including Brown Harris Stevens and individuals including REBNY chairman John Zuccotti.

The suit argues that it’s unfair of REBNY to make access to listings contingent upon its members using its database services ROLEX and RealPlus. Saying it is being unfairly excluded, BrokersNYC is seeking access to the listings system as well as monetary damages for lost business.

“Why impose the necessity of centralization when everyone already has their existing system?” asks Wang, who thinks REBNY is trying to make a power play with its newly unveiled plan. “By controlling access to the system, they can control requiring membership to their trade organization.”

Steven Spinola, president of REBNY, says that is not the case. He says he is not trying to limit the choice of REBNY members, but trying to best serve their needs.

Spinola said the “overwhelming majority” of members said they wanted to use either RealPlus or another system, OLR, under the new arrangement.

While RealPlus was the database service chosen, efforts will be made to figure out how members who currently use OLR can be accommodated so that they can use the new system, too, he said.

“Our duty is to provide members with what they want,” Spinola said.

Spinola also said the reason BrokersNYC isn’t part of the new plan is that few people are interested in using the service.

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“There have been a number of people attempting to provide services to our members,” he said. “She [Wang] happens to be a vendor who is seeking business. And not many people are interested in buying her service.”

“She thinks special rules apply to her,” he added.

Spinola also pointed out that no other listing system in the state even allows more than one vendor, according to information provided to him by the New York State Association of Realtors.

“They were unaware of any other listings system in the state that permits two vendors,” he said.

But Wang said REBNY is in a different situation because it is not an MLS.

“They should hold discussions and be voting on this issue,” she said. Wang added that she had sent a letter to REBNY from 13 brokerage owners who use the BrokersNYC system.

Wang said she named certain members of REBNY’s Board of Governors individually in the suit because she had only limited success getting a response from REBNY when pursuing the issue before.

“It’s nothing personal,” she said. Brown Harris Stevens is also a target of the lawsuit, in connection with its development of the ROLEX system.

Spinola also pointed out that REBNY didn’t want to use Wang’s service because she has had her broker’s license revoked. But Wang said the issue is “irrelevant,” and said she lost the license when she declined to take an apartment information vendor license as a form of protest, because it “misapplied regulations that were detrimental to consumers.” She was cited by Fast Company magazine and others for her efforts.

But Spinola said the issue of Wang’s “integrity” is at play.

I take exception to wasting people’s time with a frivolous lawsuit,” he said.

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