25 September 2018

These are the conditions a Competition Tribunal requires after the Competition Bureau said that TREB’s refusal to provide data access was anti-competitive.

Earlier this month, TREB sent warning letters to real estate companies threatening to revoke data access and cancel TREB memberships or bring legal action against members in case they violate the user agreement by posting sales numbers online openly.

According to the board’s lawyer Brian Facey, the letters were an attempt to find the source of the posted data in order to make sure no one has violated the contract terms.

Last week, several realtors applied for access to the TREB feed and complained they didn’t get it, and many others said they were still waiting for it on Friday.

DiMichele says TREB received about 1,000 requests for access, but only 600 of them were fulfilled.

“Nevertheless, it’s not always TREB’s fault”, – he added.

“We are working over them on a regular basis, but there are cases when the applicant is not prepared. Sometimes people think they want it, submit a request, but then don’t proceed. However, we are doing our best to fulfill as many of them as possible”.