MLS PIN settlement business practice changes go into effect Tuesday

Subscribers to the New England-based MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) are gearing up for some business practice changes, which are set to go into effect on Tuesday. 

The changes are the results of MLS PIN’s long-awaited settlement agreement in the Nosalek commission lawsuit. The MLS defendant’s fourth amended settlement agreement was granted preliminary approval in early June. Boston-based U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris’ approval came after the Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew its objection to the settlement. This withdrawal happened only after MLS PIN agreed to business practice changes that brought its settlement in line with the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement. 

In late July, MLS PIN filed a motion for final approval of its settlement. The final approval hearing is slated for September 29, 2025. 

In an email sent to subscribers on August 20, 2025, MLS PIN asks recipients to make changes to their listing agreements. 

According to the email, MLS PIN is insisting that brokerages and agents use specific language on their listing agreements. These requirements include noting that the MLS does not require the seller to offer compensation to cooperating brokers either directly or through the homebuyers, and that although a cooperating broker or a buyer may request compensation for themself or their agent from the seller or the listing broker, MLS PIN does not require the seller or listing agent to accede to the request. 

Once the broker files the listing within the system, they must check a box certifying that they made those two disclosures before entering into the listing agreement. 

Additionally, on September 2, agents and brokers who subscribe to MLS PIN will no longer be able to enter or view blanket offers of cooperative compensation. Unlike NAR’s settlement, MLS PIN’s initial drafts of its settlement did not remove offers of compensation from the MLS, instead allowing brokers to leave the box blank or put $0. 

Earlier this year, MLS PIN disclosed that after no longer requiring listing agents to make blanket offers of cooperative compensation on the MLS in order to share a listing, 75% of sellers chose not to include their compensation offer on the MLS PIN platform even though it was still allowed. 

In addition to these business practice changes, the multiple listing service also agreed to pay $3.95 million into the settlement fund, the same amount it would have paid had it bought into NAR’s settlement. 

MLS PIN and the Nosalek plaintiffs first filed their proposed settlement agreement during the summer of 2023. The settlement was subsequently granted preliminary approval by Judge Saris. However, in September 2023, the DOJ filed its first statement of interest in the suit in which it said it had “significant concerns” about the proposed settlement agreement. MLS PIN and the Nosalek plaintiffs went back to the drawing board in filing an amended settlement agreement, which the DOJ also took issue with.

Since then the three parties have gone back and forth over the terms of the proposed settlement, with the DOJ finally withdrawing its complaint after MLS PIN agreed to remove upfront offers of buyer broker compensation from its site.