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Texas-based broker and antitrust suit plaintiff Luz de Amor Eytalis has already appealed the dismissal of her suit pertaining to Realtor association membership and MLS access, but now she is hoping for a temporary restraining order against the defendants.
In a motion filed last Friday, Eytalis asks the court to block the National Association of Realtors (NAR), along with the Texas Association of Realtors, Wichita Falls Association of Realtors (WFAR), and Paragon MLS Connect from enforcing membership policies before her appeal is ruled on.
According to the filing, Eytalis is seeking to “preserve the status quo” during her appeal of the dismissal of her suit, which she filed in mid-August.
Eytalis claims that WFAR has billed her and her firm several times over the past year for overdue membership fees for agents she claims are no longer active. In the motion, Eytalis states that in late August, WFAR sent a “termination threat letter” that asked her to pay her agents’ overdue fees by this past Monday. If she lost access to the MLS, Eytalis said this would wipe out 70 listings and cause her to lose roughly $30,000 in monthly commission revenue.
“Plaintiff is seeking declarations from other brokers facing similar harms to show a pattern of anticompetitive conduct. Plaintiff is obtaining affidavits from affected brokers (to be supplemented if needed), showing WFAR’s threats have driven agents out of the market since 2023, reducing consumer choices,” the filing states.
As of Friday, when Eytalis filed her motion, she claims that WFAR had not retracted its “premature threat.”
In her appeal, Eytalis has claimed that the court overlooked evidence of monopolistic practices that violate federal antitrust law.
“Defendants’ dues policies reduce competition by forcing small brokers to pay unjust fees or lose MLS access, limiting their market participation,” Eytalis’ latest motion states.
She claims that these policies limit competition, which she says harms consumers by limiting their choice of brokers.
Eytalis’s suit is one of two lawsuits involving NAR membership and MLS access that were dismissed this summer. Both plaintiffs have appealed these rulings. NAR maintains in both lawsuits that the court was correct in dismissing the suit and that the trade group is focused on “delivering unparalleled value to [its] members, developing resources that empower local associations and fostering a fair, competitive, and transparent real estate market.”
