Competition Tribunal Ruling and Compliance with REBBA 2002
On April 27, 2016, the Competition Tribunal issued a ruling in favour of the Competition Bureau, finding the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) in violation of the Competition Act. Since the ruling, we have had a number of questions of what this means for Ontario registrants.
It’s not clear at this time what the ruling means for real estate professionals in Toronto and beyond. The Tribunal has yet to make a final decision on what changes may be imposed on TREB, including how transaction details, such as sold data, will be released.
The next step is for the Tribunal to decide what TREB will have to do to comply with the Competition Act.
The Real Estate Council of Ontario is awaiting the final decision of the Tribunal, and when it is released, we will study its impact, if any, on the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (REBBA 2002) requirements and will then provide a comprehensive update to all registrants.
In the meantime, please be reminded that Ontario registrants must comply with REBBA 2002. In particular, registrants must not include in any advertisement details of an agreement of purchase and sale, such as the parties to the agreement, the location of the property or any other contents of an agreement, including any provision of the agreement relating to the price, without the written consent of the parties to the agreement.
An updated version of this post can be found here.
