A lawsuit about private listings and NAR’s clear cooperation policy just turned into a fight about harassment victims’ privacy. That turn did not come from the plaintiffs. It came from the National Association of Realtors, and it should give every member pause.
Here is what happened, in order. NAR is defending itself against an antitrust suit brought by Mauricio Umansky’s private listing network, thePLS.com. The network first sued in 2020 over the Clear Cooperation Policy, the rule requiring a listing be submitted to the MLS within one business day of public marketing. NAR was dismissed without prejudice, and thePLS.com refiled in July 2025. The plaintiffs claim CCP “eliminates the ability of listing networks that compete with the NAR-affiliated MLSs to feature listings that are not on the NAR-affiliated MLSs.” NAR counters that the plaintiffs have suffered no “antitrust injury”.
So far, an ordinary commercial dispute over a rule the industry has argued about for years.
Then, on May 19, NAR issued a subpoena to the American Real Estate Association and its co-founder, Compass agent Jason Haber, with a June 18 deadline. Part of it was routine. Communications among ARA, thePLS.com and its Spanish-language sibling, theNLS.com. Part of it was not. The subpoena also demanded every communication tied to the NAR Accountability Project, reaching back to January 1, 2017.
That project has nothing to do with listings. Haber started it in 2023, after sexual misconduct allegations against then-NAR President Kenny Parcell, who resigned in August of that year. It became a channel for people inside NAR who said they had been harassed.
Haber refused. “The NAR Accountability Project shut down before ARA even existed,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’ll leave it to you to ask what its files have to do with a case about private listings.” The records, he said, “include highly sensitive conversations with victims who came forward about harassment inside NAR,” and ARA “is objecting in the strongest possible terms”.
Powerfact: A subpoena is a window into strategy. You can learn what a party fears by reading what it demands.
Let me be fair to NAR first, because fairness is the point.
The Association built the cooperative MLS framework that CCP protects, and that framework is why a buyer in almost any American market can tour nearly every listed home through nearly any agent. That kind of open access does not exist in most of the world. NAR earned credit for it, and the trade press too often forgets to give it.
Credit, though, does not excuse the ask. Discovery is supposed to be tethered to the claims in the case. The claims here are about a listing rule and competition. Years of harassment-victim communications are not evidence about whether CCP restrains trade. Demanding them anyway, from the co-founder of a rival association, looks less like fact-finding and more like a message. Even if a judge trims the request later, members already saw what the first draft wanted.
Powerfact: NAR can win the legal argument and still lose the trust argument. The second one is the one that pays its dues.
The timing makes it worse. NAR is asking members to believe it can be a fair steward at the exact moment stewardship is under the most scrutiny in a generation. CCP’s future, the Compass and Zillow listing war, the neutrality of the MLS itself, all of it runs through the same question. Does this institution use its power with restraint? A subpoena that reaches for harassment files in a listings case is not the answer members were hoping to read.
So, what do you do with this as a working agent?
First, separate the noise from your obligations. The headlines do not change the rulebook. CCP still applies. Market a listing publicly, and you owe it to the MLS within one business day. A courtroom drama is not a loophole.
Second, read past the spin. Both the subpoena and Haber’s statement are public. Whichever side reaches your inbox first will have a tidy narrative. Build your own from the documents instead.
Third, put it to work in the listing conversation. Sellers are hearing fragments about private networks, lawsuits, and Zillow bans. You can be the calm, sourced voice who explains what is actually settled and what is still being fought over. In a confused market, clarity is a competitive advantage.
The lawsuit will resolve the way these usually do, quietly, in a filing most agents never read. The reputation question will not. Members remember how leadership behaves when no one is forcing its hand. NAR still has time to narrow this request and act like the steward it asks members to trust. Whether it does will say more about the association’s future than any verdict.
Darryl Davis, CSP, is the creator of the POWER Program® and a real estate coach, keynote speaker and bestselling author with more than 40 years in the industry. He helps agents and brokers build careers, and lives, worth smiling about. His guiding principle: Serve, don’t sell. Coach, don’t close. Learn more at DarrylSpeaks.com.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.
To contact the editor responsible for this piece: tracey@hwmedia.com
