Court Rejects Challenge to MLS Rules

A Kansas court found that an MLS had the discretion to reject an application from a real estate brokerage firm seeking to participate in the MLS because the broker did not meet the non-REALTOR® participant requirements. The brokerage filed an application to join the Heartland Multiple Listing Service, owned by the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS®, as a non-REALTOR® participant. The MLS rules allowed for nonmembers of the association to apply for MLS participation. Even though the brokerage’s supervising broker had recently resigned his membership after 13 years, he was still the supervising broker of another REALTOR® association member firm, and so the brokerage was ineligible for non-REALTOR® participation. The court determined that the brokerage had failed to allege that any of its legal rights had been violated and that the association’s bylaws and the MLS rules gave the association discretion in acceptance of non-REALTOR® applicants.

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