Toronto Real Estate Board taking online data case to top court
Canada’s largest real estate board says it will seek a Supreme Court of Canada appeal to fight a ruling that it must allow its realtor members to make home sales data available online — further dragging out a battle that started in 2011.
The Toronto Real Estate Board said it was disappointed by the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision Friday to uphold an April 2016 Competition Tribunal ruling that the board’s practices prohibiting sharing information online are anti-competitive.
The professional body, which represents about 45,000 members from the Greater Toronto Area, will seek permission from the court to appeal, as well as an order staying the decision until the outcome of the appeal — if it is granted, said CEO John DiMichele in a statement.
“TREB believes strongly that personal financial information of homebuyers and sellers must continue to be safely used and disclosed,” he said.
Publishing sensitive data, such as the price a home is sold for, would violate consumers’ privacy, the organization had argued.
But the federal appeal court dismissed the appeal Friday, saying “TREB made no substantive challenge to the tribunal’s finding that it controlled the relevant market.”
“The tribunal made no error in finding that TREB engaged in an anti-competitive practice and that this practice had and will likely continue to have the effect of preventing or lessening competition substantially in the (Greater Toronto Area) sufficient to meet the requirements,” read a summary of its decision.
The quasi-judicial tribunal sided with the Competition Bureau, which first made an application in 2011 alleging that TREB’s rules prevented competition and stifled digital innovation by prohibiting its realtor members from posting sales data on their websites.
The tribunal also said TREB must provide data such as sales figures, pending sales and broker commissions, which it does not currently disclose.
While Friday’s decision could enable agents across the country to introduce new online services, some in the industry say that’s unlikely until the case meanders its way through the top rung of Canada’s legal system.