Since TREB announced its appeal of the Competition Tribunal’s decision, we’ve become aware of much confusion and misunderstanding of our position; I’d like to set the record straight.
TREB has never been opposed to any innovation in the real estate marketplace, nor the distribution of property data, particularly the sold price.
However, Canadian privacy laws obligate TREB and its members to obtain explicit informed consent from a buyer and a seller to distribute their personal financial information, a right to privacy that only they may waive. It is a known fact that once any information is made available on the Internet, it’s literally gone and available for anyone to misuse or misappropriate.
Concerns regarding the potential adverse effects on competition in the marketplace or on innovation are also unfounded. As a member-based organization, it is TREB’s role to provide tools and resources to our members. TREB does not get involved in how our members choose to compete in the real estate market. One only has to look at the real estate landscape in the GTA to see that there is a tremendous amount of competition in the marketplace, among TREB’s 45,000 GTA Realtor members.
For more than 95 years, GTA consumers have entrusted TREB members as the custodians of their personal financial information, and they take that responsibility very seriously. Absent the court order by the tribunal, it is TREB’s view that without explicit informed consent from consumers, disclosure is not only a breach of trust, it’s against the law.
TREB is appealing the decision of the Competition Tribunal.
John DiMichele is CEO of the Toronto Real Estate Board.
