TREB successfully sues property portal for copying its data

Mongohouse has recently been sued by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). The lawsuit will prevent Mongohouse from illegally accessing, copying and distributing TREB's real estate data on its property listing site.

Filed last fall, the TREB’s permanent injunction went to the heart of the portal’s operations, which previously served as a readily accessible resource for property listings and sold data.

Mogohouse shut down on October 1, 2018, and remains offline as of press time.

“Putting an end to unauthorized uses protects the integrity of the MLS,” TREB President Garry Bhaura recently told The Canadian Press.

“The operators of Mongohouse.com have acknowledged that they were not authorized to access the TREB MLS system and that their actions were wrong in doing so,” TREB CEO John DiMichele added.

The Board’s long-term policy in such matters is not without its critics, however.

TREB’s resolve to hold onto its sold data as tightly as it can will likely harm the Canadian housing segment’s capacity to innovate, Ryerson University associate professor Murtaza Haider and industry veteran Stephen Moranis wrote in their analysis late last year.

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