Hagens Berman, the same plaintiffs’ law firm behind the Moehrl commission lawsuit, appears to be currently seeking plaintiffs for a possible class action lawsuit against Compass International Holdings and Chicagoland MLS Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED).
In a post on its website, the law firm asks consumers if they bought a home in Chicagoland on or after April 24, 2026.
Hagens Berman’s antitrust attorneys are “investigating class-action claims on behalf of Chicagoland homebuyers who may have overpaid for their homes because of an alleged monopoly over the local real estate listing market,” the site states.
According to the firm, attorneys at Hagens Berman believe that together, Compass and MRED “hold a 98% share of the real estate listing market in Chicago, and that they use that control in ways that inflate what buyers pay.”
“The alleged effect is twofold. Most buyers are shut out of privately listed homes entirely, never learning those properties are for sale,” the site states. “And for the properties that do eventually transition to the open market, buyers allegedly arrive without the information that helps set a fair selling price, including how long a home has actually been on the market, which is normally a public data point. Without days-on-market data, buyers can’t tell an overpriced listing from a fairly priced one. Attorneys allege that Chicago area homebuyers have been paying the difference.”
The webpage cites Compass’s own data in which it found, through an analysis of 70,809 of its own transactions that closed between April 2025 and March 2026 across all markets, that homes which began as a “Private Exclusive” or “Coming Soon” before reaching the MLS sold for 4.6% more than comparable homes that went straight to the MLS. This is up from a 2.9% increase Compass reported in a similar study in February 2025 covering data 2024 transaction data.
“Compass frames these figures as a benefit for sellers. Attorneys allege they describe a cost borne by buyers, who bid on homes priced above what the open market would have set, with no way of knowing it,” the site states.
Hagens Berman wrote on the page that a class action lawsuit would seek to “level the playing field.”
“No individual homebuyer can take on the companies that control a region’s entire listing market. Together, buyers can,” the site states. “These cases are a time-tested method of holding powerful companies accountable and recovering money for the people who were overcharged.”
MRED did not immediately returned HousingWire’s request for comment, while Compass said it did not wish to comment on the post.
MRED and Compass are currently defendants in an antitrust lawsuit filed by Zillow, in which the listing portal giant claims that they conspired to withhold MRED’s listing feed from Zillow harming consumers in the Chicagoland market.
Hagens Berman is no stranger to the real estate industry. In addition to the Moehrl suit, last September Hagens Berman represented Alucard Taylor in a lawsuit against Zillow claiming that the company was deceiving consumers with its contact agent button. The lawsuit was dismissed in July, but the plaintiffs have since filed an amended complaint.
