A Multiple Listing Service shall permit MLS Participants to operate VOWs, or to have VOWs operated for them by AVPs, subject to the requirements of state law and this Policy.
Core provision of settlement – permitting VOWs subject to the Policy and rules.
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An MLS shall, if requested by a Participant, provide basic "downloading" of all MLS nonconfidential listing data, including without limitation address fields, listings types, photographs, and links to virtual tours. Confidential data includes only that which Participants are prohibited from providing to customers orally and by all other delivery mechanisms. They include fields containing the information described in paragraph IV(1) of this Policy, provided that sold data (i.e., listing information relating to properties that have sold) shall be deemed confidential and withheld from a download only if the actual sales prices of completed transactions are not accessible from public records. For purposes of this Policy, "downloading" means electronic transmission of data from MLS servers to a Participant's or AVP's server on a persistent basis. An MLS may also offer a transient download. In such case, it shall also, if requested, provide a persistent download, provided that it may impose on users of such download the approximate additional costs incurred by it to do so.
This provision imposes on MLS the requirement to make data available to brokers for VOWs.
Follow the instructions for VOW-operating brokers.
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Can real estate agents keep secrets?, December 9, 2008
Questions about implications of VOW settlement, November 24, 2008.
This Policy does not require an MLS to establish publicly accessible sites displaying Participants' listings.
See text above.
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If an MLS provides a VOW-specific feed, that feed must include all of the nonconfidential data included in the feed described in paragraph 2 above except for listings or property addresses of sellers who have elected not to have their listings or addresses displayed on the Internet.
Taken together with III.2, this provision ensures that VOW-operating brokers are entitled to receive a data feed from MLS that includes all the records and fields that a VOW can display (which is nearly all records and fields).
See "Action Items: VOW-operating broker."
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An MLS may pass on to those Participants who will download listing information the reasonably estimated costs incurred by the MLS in adding or enhancing its "downloading" capacity to enable such Participants to operate VOWs.
This section permits MLSs to recover its costs for creating data feeds meeting the requirements of the policy.
See "Action Items: VOW-operating broker."
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An MLS may require that Participants
(1) utilize appropriate security protection, such as firewalls, as long as such requirement does not impose security obligations greater than those employed concurrently by the MLS, and/or
(2) maintain an audit trail of Registrants' activity on the VOW and make that information available to the MLS if the MLS has reason to believe that any VOW has caused or permitted a breach in the security of the data or a violation of applicable MLS rules.
This section provides for two more options for MLSs with regard to the operation of broker VOWs; the requirements to use security protection and the requirement to maintain and make available audit trails of user activity.
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An MLS may not prohibit or regulate display of advertising or the identification of entities on VOWs ("branding" or "co-branding"), except to prohibit deceptive or misleading advertising or co-branding. For purposes of this provision, cobranding will be presumed not to be deceptive or misleading if the Participant's logo and contact information (or that of at least one Participant, in the case of a VOW established and operated by or for more than one Participant) is displayed in immediate conjunction with that of every other party, and the logo and contact information of all Participants displayed on the VOW is as large as the logo of the AVP and larger than that of any third party.
This section limits MLS’s ability to regulate advertising and “co-branding” of VOWs, “except to prohibit deceptive or misleading advertising or co-branding.” The section provides a “safe harbor,” in other words, a description of branding that is presumed NOT to be deceptive or misleading.
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Except as provided in this Policy, an MLS may not prohibit Participants from enhancing their VOWs by providing information obtained from sources other than the MLS, additional technological services (such as mapping functionality), or information derived from nonconfidential MLS data (such as an estimated monthly payment derived from the listed price), or regulate the use or display of such information or technological services on any VOW.
This section affirmatively permits brokers to add data and functionality and prohibits MLSs from regulating the practice, except as provided in the policy.
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See "Action Items: VOW-operating broker."
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Except as provided in generally applicable rules or policies (such as the REALTOR® Code of Ethics), an MLS may not restrict the format of data display on a VOW or regulate the appearance of VOWs.
See text, above.
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Subject to the provisions below, an MLS shall make MLS listing data available to an AVP for the exclusive purpose of operating a VOW on behalf of a Participant. An MLS shall make MLS listing data available to an AVP under the same terms and conditions as those applicable to Participants. No AVP has independent participation rights in the MLS by virtue of its right to receive data on behalf of a Participant, or the right to use MLS data except in connection with operation of a VOW for a Participant. AVP access to MLS data is derivative of the rights of the Participant on whose behalf the AVP is downloading data.
a. A Participant, non-principal broker or sales licensee, or AVP may establish the AVP's right to receive and use MLS data by providing to the MLS a writing in which the Participant acknowledges its or its non-principal broker's or sales licensee's selection of the AVP to operate a VOW on its behalf.
b. An MLS may not charge an AVP, or a Participant on whose behalf an AVP operates a VOW, more than a Participant that chooses to operate a VOW itself (including any fees or costs associated with a license to receive MLS data, as described in (g), below), except to the extent that the MLS incurs greater costs in providing listing data to the AVP than the MLS incurs in providing listing data to a Participant.
c. An MLS may not place data security requirements or restrictions on use of MLS listing data by an AVP that are not also imposed on Participants.
d. An MLS must permit an AVP to download listing information in the same manner (e.g., via a RETS feed or via an FTP download), at the same times and with the same frequency that the MLS permits Participants to download listing information.
e. An MLS may not refuse to deal directly with an AVP in order to resolve technical problems with the data feed. However, the MLS may require that the Participant on whose behalf the AVP is operating the VOW participate in such communications if the MLS reasonably believes that the involvement of the Participant would be helpful in order to resolve the problem.
f. An MLS may not condition an AVP's access to a data feed on the financial terms on which the AVP provides the site for the Participant.
g. An MLS may require Participants and AVPs to execute license or similar agreements sufficient to ensure that Participants and AVPs understand and agree that data provided by the MLS may be used only to establish and operate a VOW on behalf of the Participant and not for any other purpose.
h. An MLS may not (i) prohibit an AVP from operating VOWs on behalf of more than one Participant, and several Participants may designate an AVP to operate a single VOW for them collectively, (ii) limit the number of entities that Participants may designate as AVPs for purposes of operating VOWs, or (iii) prohibit Participants from designating particular entities as AVPs except that, if an AVP's access has been suspended or terminated by an MLS, that MLS may prevent an entity from being designated an AVP by another Participant during the period of the AVP's suspension or termination.
i. Except as stated below, an MLS may not suspend or terminate an AVP's access to data (a) for reasons other than those that would allow an MLS to suspend or terminate a Participant's access to data, or (b) without giving the AVP and the associated Participant(s) prior notice and the process set forth in the applicable provisions of the MLS rules for suspension or termination of a Participant's access. Notwithstanding the foregoing, an MLS may immediately terminate an AVP's access to data (a) if the AVP is no longer designated to provide VOW services to any Participant, (b) if the Participant for whom the AVP operates a VOW ceases to maintain its status with the MLS, (c) if the AVP has downloaded data in a manner not authorized for Participants and that hinders the ability of Participants to download data, or (d) if the associated Participant or AVP has failed to make required payments to the MLS in accordance with the MLS's generally applicable payment policies and practices.
This section requires that MLSs allow affiliated VOW providers (brokers' technology/marketing partners) to have access to the VOW data for purposes of operating VOWs on behalf of brokers. It comes with a number of restrictions on the MLSs and the AVPs.
See "Action Items: VOW-operating broker."
Many. This will be a focus of discussion on MLSTesseract.
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An MLS may not prohibit, restrict, or impede a Participant from referring Registrants to any person or from obtaining a fee for such referral.
See text, above.
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