Top Agent Network’s pocket listing case is set to go to trial in November 2025.

This The best agent network (TAN) The pocketbook antitrust lawsuit is headed to trial on Nov. 3, 2025. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco set a November 2025 trial date Friday during a case management hearing.

Originally submitted in 2020 by TAN, the suit aims at National Association of Real Estate Agents‘ (NAR) ban on pocket listings through its Clear Cooperation Policy. The plaintiffs argued that the ban denies agents marketing choices and alleges that requiring listing brokers to submit a listing to the MLS within one business day of listing a property violates the federal Sherman Antitrust Act.

The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in 2021 because a lower court ruled that TAN had failed to state a claim with prejudice in its third amended complaint. However, the plaintiff appealed that ruling to Ninth Circuit Court of Appealswhich in August 2023 decided to overturn the lower court’s ruling, arguing that the allegations contained in TAN’s lawsuit were almost identical to those contained in the lawsuit filed by PLS.comwhich was allowed to proceed. NAR, the sole remaining defendant in the PLS.com lawsuit, was dismissed from the lawsuit in January 2024.

In December 2023, the TAN lawsuit was reopened by Chhabria, and the plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration in May 2024. In late July, Chhabria granted TAN’s motion for reconsideration, noting that the plaintiff had “adequately alleged antitrust harm.”

“The alleged harm stems from the Policy’s allegedly anticompetitive effects on the real estate listing services market: By forcing Top Agent Network and other listing services to compete with MLSs for listings at a disadvantage, the Policy prevents Top Agent Network ‘from gaining a foothold in the market and makes it virtually impossible for new competitors to enter the market, leaving agents with fewer choices, supercompetitive prices, and lower-quality products,’” Chhabria wrote in the July ruling.

In addition to setting a trial date, Chhabria also outlined a timeline for the court proceedings Friday. The most important upcoming deadline is Dec. 2, 2024, when the parties must file amended pleadings.

The parties then have until February 28, 2025, to establish the facts, with preliminary reports due by March 12, 2025, and replication reports due by May 30, 2025.

The evidentiary hearing is scheduled to conclude on June 27, 2025, and the last day of the hearing on the motion for a preliminary ruling is set for August 21, 2025. The parties then have two months to prepare for a pretrial conference scheduled for October 21, 2025.

The defendants in the lawsuit were originally NAR, San Francisco Real Estate Agents Association and California Association of Realtorswhich were dismissed from the lawsuit in 2021.

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