In separate cases counsel representing either a local board of realtors or a multiple listing service (MLS) retained Cornerstone Research to analyze the plaintiffs’ claims that membership in a Board of Realtors as a condition for participating in an MLS constituted an illegal tying agreement and a group boycott.
Retained by Sidley & Austin and by Spencer Fane Britt & Browne
In separate cases counsel representing either a local board of realtors or a multiple listing service (MLS) retained Cornerstone Research to analyze the plaintiffs’ claims that membership in a Board of Realtors as a condition for participating in an MLS constituted an illegal tying agreement and a group boycott.
In these separate cases Professor Christopher James of the University of Florida, Dr. Michael Keeley, a senior vice president of Cornerstone Research, and an economics professor concluded that membership requirements were procompetitive, not anticompetitive as claimed by the plaintiffs; that board membership and MLS membership are not separate products; that the multiple listing services did not have market power; and that the membership requirement did not meet the definition of a group boycott.