The

Top
Agent
Network
(TAN)
pocket
listing
antitrust
lawsuit
is
on
track
to
have
its
day
in
court
—
and
that
day
will
be
Nov.
3,
2025.
U.S.
District
Court
Judge
Vince
Chhabria
in
San
Francisco
set
the
November
2025
trial
date
on
Friday
during
a
case
management
hearing.

Originally
filed
in
2020
by TAN,
the
suit
takes
aim
at
the National
Association
of
Realtors’ (NAR) ban
on
pocket
listings via
its
Clear
Cooperation
Policy.
The
plaintiff
claimed
that
the
ban
takes
away
agents’
marketing
choices,
and
they
allege
that
the
requirement
for
listing
brokers
to
submit
a
listing
to
their MLS within
one
business
day
of
marketing
a
property
to
the
public
violates
the
federal Sherman
Antitrust
Act.

The
suit
was
dismissed
with
prejudice
in
2021
as
a
lower
court
ruled
that
TAN
failed
to
state
a
claim
with
prejudice
in
its
third
amended
complaint.
But
the plaintiff
appealed
the
ruling to
the Ninth
Circuit
Court
of
Appeals,
which
decided
in
August
2023
to
vacate
the
lower
court’s
ruling
by
arguing
that
the
allegations
made
in
TAN’s
suit
were
nearly
identical
to
those
made
in
a
suit
filed
by The PLS.com,
which
had
been
allowed
to
proceed.
NAR,
the
only
remaining
defendant
in
the PLS.com suit,
was dismissed
from
the
suit
in
January
2024.

In
December
2023,
the
TAN
suit
was
reopened
by
Chhabria,
and
the
plaintiff
filed
its
motion
for
reconsideration
in
May
2024.
In
late
July,
Chhabria

granted
TAN’s
motion
for
reconsideration,
noting
that
the
plaintiff
had
“adequately
alleged
antitrust
injury.”

“Its
asserted
injury
stems
from
the
Policy’s
allegedly
anticompetitive
effects
on
the
market
for
real
estate
listing
services:
by
forcing
Top
Agent
Network
and
other
listing
services
to
compete
with
the
MLSs
for
listings
on
unfavorable
terms,
the
Policy
prevents
Top
Agent
Network
from
‘gaining
a
foothold
in
the
market
and
makes
it
virtually
impossible
for
new
competitors
to
enter,
leaving
agents
with
fewer
choices,
supra-competitive
prices,
and
lower
quality
products,’”
Chhabria
wrote
in
the
July
ruling.

In
addition
to
setting
the
trial
date,
Chhabria
also
laid
out
the
timeline
on
Friday
for
how
the
lawsuit
will
progress.
The
most
important
upcoming
deadline
is
Dec.
2,
2024,
which
is
when
the
parties’
amended
pleadings
are
due.

From
there,
the
parties
have
until
Feb.
28,
2025,
for
fact
discovery,
with
opening
reports
then
due
by
March
12,
2025,
and
rebuttal
reports
due
by
May
30,
2025.

The
close
of
expert
discovery
is
slated
for
June
27,
2025,
and
the
last
day
to
hear
dipositive
motion
hearings
is
set
for
Aug.
21,
2025.
The
parties
then
have
two
months
to
prepare
for
a
pretrial
conference
that
is
set
for
Oct.
21,
2025.

The
defendants
in
the
suit
originally
consisted
of
NAR,
the San
Francisco
Association
of
Realtors and
the California
Association
of
Realtors,
which
were
dismissed
from
the
suit
in
2021.

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