Court Opinion

ID: 9751064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:01:41.805511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:06.220642
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                       AUG 28 2023
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

TOP AGENT NETWORK, INC.,                        No.    21-16494

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No. 3:20-cv-03198-VC

 v.
                                                MEMORANDUM*
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
REALTORS; SAN FRANCISCO
ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS,

                Defendants-Appellees,

and

CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF
REALTORS, INC.,

                Defendant.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Northern District of California
                    Vince Chhabria, District Judge, Presiding

                             Submitted August 24, 2023**
                              San Francisco, California

Before: BUMATAY, KOH, and DESAI, Circuit Judges.

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
      Top Agent Network (“Top Agent”) appeals the district court’s dismissal of its

third amended complaint for failure to state a claim with prejudice. We review de

novo. Telesaurus VPC, LLC v. Power, 623 F.3d 998, 1003 (9th Cir. 2010).

      In 2019, the National Association of Realtors (“the Association”) adopted a

policy prohibiting member-realtors from marketing properties on private listing

services without also listing them on the Association’s public listing services. Top

Agent, the operator of a private listing service, sued the Association under the

Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, and corollary state laws. Top Agent alleges that the

policy is a per se group boycott because it forces agents to either avoid non-MLS

listing services like Top Agent or agree to unfavorable terms. The district court

dismissed Top Agent’s third amended complaint for failure to state a claim without

leave to amend. Top Agent Network v. Nat’l Ass’n of Realtors, 554 F.Supp.3d 1024

(N.D. Cal 2021).

      After dismissal but before briefing in this case, we considered the sufficiency

of similar allegations in PLS.com v. Nat’l Ass’n of Realtors, 32 F.4th 824, 832–41

(9th Cir. 2022), cert. denied, 143 S. Ct. 567 (2023). Because the facts of PLS.com

are sufficiently analogous to the facts as alleged here, we vacate the district court’s

order and remand Top Agent’s claims for reconsideration under PLS.com.

      VACATED and REMANDED.

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