Primer on Effective Master Licensing Agreements for Real Estate Databases

A. Databases Are Valuable Resources. Until the mid-1990's, multiple listing service databases were fiercely protected from disclosure to anyone other than bona fide REALTOR® members of the association(s) of REALTORS® that owned and operated the multiple listing services. In fact, until 1993, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Multiple Listing Policy strictly prohibited access to the databases of a REALTOR® association owned or operated multiple listing service by anyone other than REALTOR® members of the association. According to NAR policy at the time, MLS databases were narrowly defined as vehicles through which real estate brokers bound to observe the REALTORS® Code of Ethics could cooperate with each other by exchanging unilateral offers of subagency appointments to sell the property listed with their firms. This definition of an MLS was the foundation upon which NAR built its "REALTORS®-eyes only" MLS database access policy.

For a variety of reasons, this "REALTORS®-eyes only" MLS policy was effectively abandoned in the early 1990's. First, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Thompson, et al. v. DeKalb Board of REALTORS®, et al., 934 F.2d 1566 (11th Cir. 1991), which held that REALTOR® Association MLSs that had "market power" violated the federal antitrust laws if they limited acc


-----------------