Government Staffers Question Upstream CEO on Antitrust Ahead of Launch

As a panelist at Zillow Group's MLS Forum in April 2018, Partner David Kully commented on Upstream—an online platform that will launch a regional multiple listing service (MLS) in Oregon as part of their aim to give real estate brokers more control over real estate data. The company has been proactive with working with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) ahead of their plans to implement more regulation.

Mr. Kully, a former staff attorney in the DOJ’s antitrust division, said if he were still at the DOJ, he might ask whether Upstream “is something that is going to help facilitate brokers overcoming the competitive forces that have caused them to share data and to change from that.”

“I do not mean to say that the intent of Upstream was to allow brokers to stop competing on where they send listings and to reach a potentially illegal agreement to boycott listings portals, but I wonder whether it might unintentionally have that effect by making it easier for brokers to do so,” Mr. Kully said when reached by Inman.

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