The California Association of Realtors, in an announcement this week, called attention to the failure of a ballot initiative that sought to establish a statewide database for property listings information.
San Francisco lawyer David Barry, who has filed several antitrust lawsuits against the California Association of Realtors and other real estate groups, led the ballot initiative, which he said failed for lack of financial support because the collection of signatures is typically a costly process.
A similar ballot initiative has been proposed in the state of Maine, and Barry is now leading an Open MLS Institute that supports the free dissemination of information about homes for sale and for rent and allows both consumers and agents to list property information.
“Barry reportedly was unable to secure a single supportive reported signature for the (ballot) initiative during his statewide collection efforts over the past several months,” according to the statement by the California Association of Realtors.
Vince Malta, president for the state Realtor trade group, said that the ballot initiative in California did not appear to address “performance standards, meaningful privacy protections for consumers (and) fiscal accountability” for the proposed statewide database.
The state Realtor trade has filed a lawsuit against Barry, alleging malicious prosecution for his filing of several similar lawsuits, and that litigation is under way. Barry has held that the court actions in question were separate matters.
“The court found C.A.R. demonstrated sufficient evidence of malice to go forward with the case against Barry,” the trade group announced.
