A ‘for sale’ sign stands in front of a home that has been sold in Toronto.© Mark Blinch / Reuters/Reuters
The Toronto Real Estate Board is stepping up its efforts in court to overturn a decision by the federal Competition Tribunal that allows more detailed home sales data to be released on the Internet.
In a statement published on Monday, TREB reiterated its concerns that the tribunal's April 27 order mandating wider access to the industry's Multiple Listing Service database violates privacy law and the rights of buyers and sellers. On May 27, the real estate board filed a notice of appeal to challenge the ruling in the Federal Court of Appeal and on Friday, it asked the court to stay the tribunal's decision.
After a subsequent hearing last month to work out the details of its ruling, the Competition Tribunal said TREB's active realtor members would be allowed to publish information online that is not currently being widely disseminated, including sales figures, pending sales and broker commissions. As part of this arrangement, virtual brokers would be permitted to display and analyze this data as freely over the Internet as other realtors currently share such information with their clients in person, by fax or over e-mail.
Even as TREB continues to contest the decision in court, its information technology staff are working to upgrade its systems so it's ready to comply with the order, which is set to come into effect on Aug. 3.
The tribunal's decision is expected to be a game-changer in the industry by loosening TREB's tight grip on real estate sales data and allowing budding online brokerages to offer the public a better look at the housing market, giving them a chance to compete and flourish.
But there is still some uncertainty over how these changes will all play out.
"There's a lot of confusion out there," John DiMichele, TREB's chief executive officer, said in a phone interview. "People are confused as to what the order means."
In the June ruling, the tribunal said sellers would be able to opt out of having their addresses and listings shown online. TREB, in contrast, had been seeking an "opt-in" policy.
"Canada's privacy law regime requires that any disclosure of personal financial information for uses not previously identified to the consumer requires the consumer's informed consent," TREB said in the statement.
Even though a password will be required for users to access these databases, TREB argues that a password doesn't go far enough to guard people's data from getting into the wrong hands.
"If the tribunal order stands, there is nothing TREB can do to stop personal financial information, such as the sale price of your home and photos, from being copied, sold or misused once it is available on the Internet," TREB cautioned in its statement.
It contends that it has not obtained permission from consumers to widely disseminate sales data that dates back to the 1980s, the time period stipulated in the tribunal's ruling. It also submits that most people want the final sale price of their home to be kept private, citing an Angus Reid poll.
"[The tribunal's] decision is that they believe that TREB doesn't need to go to the consumer to get their consent," Von Palmer, the board's chief privacy officer, said in an interview. "It's not TREB's right. It's not TREB's call. Consumers should have a choice."
Lawyers for the Commissioner of Competition have said that virtual brokers do not require additional consent to use and display housing sales data, arguing that TREB is proposing a "two-tiered solution" that will "perpetuate the information asymmetry at the heart of TREB's practice of anti-competitive acts."
The tribunal's three-member panel said in April that TREB had engaged in anti-competitive practices by restricting how its member realtors who run online brokerages access and share electronic data about homes that have been sold across the Greater Toronto Area. But TREB reiterated that the tribunal "erred in fact and law" in concluding that it has lessened competition among its 45,000 active members.