CoreLogic did not appropriately provide property data to ATTOM Data Solutions as was required by a 2014 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission relating to CoreLogic’s acquisition of DataQuick Information Systems, the FTC said this week.
Back in 2014, the FTC and CoreLogic reached an agreement that would allow the company to buy DataQuick, one of its biggest competitors, in a $660 million deal.
At the time, the FTC was concerned that CoreLogic buying DataQuick may allow CoreLogic to substantially weaken the competition in the market for national tax assessor and recorder bulk data.
To allow the deal to move forward, the FTC required CoreLogic to provide DataQuick’s bulk data to RealtyTrac, ensuring that there would be competition between the two companies moving forward.
Additionally, CoreLogic was required to license and provide updated bulk data to RealtyTrac, which is now known as ATTOM Data Solutions, for at least five years.
That licensing agreement was due to expire next year, but, according to the FTC, CoreLogic did not hold up its end of the bargain.
Therefore, the FTC is requiring CoreLogic to continue to provide data to ATTOM until 2022, at least.
According to the FTC, CoreLogic was not compliant with all portions of the previous agreement.
The FTC alleged that CoreLogic did not provide all of the required data and information by the deadlines established by the previous agreement. CoreLogic also did not adequately identify and provide to RealtyTrac the full scope of bulk data and information DataQuick used in the bulk data market, the FTC said.
According to the FTC, CoreLogic disagrees with these allegations, but chose to enter into a new consent order, nonetheless.
From the FTC order:
Soon after CoreLogic began delivering bulk data to RealtyTrac, RealtyTrac discovered that it was missing data that DataQuick has provided to bulk data customers. RealtyTrac continued to uncover additional missing data for at least the next 2 years. When RealtyTrac contacted CoreLogic about the missing data, CoreLogic provided the data, but at a time well after the deadline for providing data in the Order.
Contrary to the requirements of the Order, CoreLogic did not proactively identify the full scope of bulk data that DataQuick had used and ensure CoreLogic was delivering this data to RealtyTrac. In addition, CoreLogic did not provide RealtyTrac, Commission staff, or the monitor with complete and accurate information regarding the manner in which DataQuick provided bulk data to customers.
The FTC stated that CoreLogic’s actions violated the agreement and interfered with the goal of maintaining competition in the market.
“CoreLogic slowed the delivery of DataQuick’s bulk data and information to RealtyTrac,” the FTC said. “Further, RealtyTrac relied on CoreLogic’s inaccurate assertions that it was providing RealtyTrac with all of DataQuick’s bulk data. These actions, which violated its obligations under the Order, harmed RealtyTrac’s reputation and required RealtyTrac to expend technical and financial resources to uncover missing data.”
The new order tacks three more years onto the data-sharing agreement, pushing the deadline out until March 2022.
“ATTOM is pleased with the modified order from the FTC as it addresses deficiencies that our data governance team identified earlier on,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a statement provided to HousingWire.
“In light of this, our operations team took pro-active steps to multi-source the tax, deed and mortgage data, ensuring that our data licensing customers were not adversely impacted by the deficiencies from this particular source, but it is encouraging that the FTC has now recognized those deficiencies and is requiring corrective action,” Barber added.
A spokesperson for CoreLogic said the company will not be commenting on the new FTC order.
