Currently, The Competition Bureau of Canada is working on an investigation on the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) related to regulations about real estate commissions and the REALTOR® Cooperation Policy. Specifically, they are investigating whether the CREA has committed abuses of dominance in the market or violated other provisions of the Competition Act. The Bureau is also investigating if CREA’s commission rules affect competition, for example by discouraging the realtors of home buyers from competing to offer lower commission rates, which could result in less competition and higher costs for both buyers and sellers. Further, The Bureau seeks to determine if CREA’s Realtor Cooperation Policy in place makes it more difficult for alternative listing services to compete or gives larger real estate brokerages an unfair advantage over smaller ones. 

This is not the first time the Competition Bureau has engaged with real estate boards. In 2010, the Bureau reached an agreement with CREA after addressing concerns about MLS system rules that restricted consumer choice and prevented innovative business models from emerging. As a result, CREA changed its MLS rules to clarify and enforce that the nature of services to be provided to the seller or buyer is a matter of agreement between the realtors and their clients. And in 2016, the Competition Tribunal ruled in favour of the Bureau in its case against the Toronto Real Estate Board, relating to anti-competitive conduct that restricted real estate brokers’ and consumers’ access to historical home sales data and novel real estate services.

For its current case against the CREA, the Competition Bureau has obtained an order, granted by the Federal Court, to advance its investigation into the potential anti-competitive conduct by CREA. This now requires CREA to produce records and information relevant to the Bureau’s investigation.