Franchisor IDX Display Changes

NAR Board Ammends Franchisor IDX Policy
At the 2010 NAR Annual Convention, the NAR Board of Directors approved an amendment to the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) policy authorizing Participants to provide IDX information to their real estate franchise organizations ("franchisors") to be indexed for display on franchisors' websites.

At the May 14, 2011 meeting, the Board of Directors voted to keep the current IDX policy in effect until the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee reports back to the Board at the 2011 NAR Annual Convention, but amended the IDX policy to permit display of IDX listings on franchisors' websites only if a listing broker affirmatively consents ("opts-in") to franchisor indexing and display. The amendment to the IDX policy is effective thirty days following the Directors' action.

The implications of the Directors' actions are:

Franchisors have until Monday, June 13 to discontinue display of the listings of MLS Participants who have not affirmatively consented to display of their listings on franchisor website

MLSs must permit Participants to affirmatively consent to display of their listings on franchisor websites. Participants' consent to franchisor display can be blanket or can be granted only to specified franchisors at Participants' discretion. To facilitate implementation of this discretionary opt-in, MLSs can persume that any Participant affirmatively consenting to display of their listings gives that consent on a blanket basis unless the Participant expressly directs otherwise.

If an MLS provides a direct datat feed to franchisors, only the listings of Participants who have affirmatively consented to display of their listings on franchisor sites can be displayed

Franchisees who provide IDX information to their franchisor for display – or have their site indexed by the franchisor – will need to let the franchisor know which participants have affirmatively consented to display of their listings on the franchisor's site. Only the listings of Participants who have affirmatively consented to such display can be displayed on franchisor sites.