Zoocasa CEO Lauren Haw says it would take about 30 seconds for her company to add the price for which a property sold to the listings on its website.

But Zoocasa, a member of the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), is reluctantly respecting the board’s position that the sold data not be posted online, even though it’s information consumers want.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court extended TREB’s right to continue that prohibition, pending a further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“TREB continues to believe strongly that the personal financial information of home buyers and sellers must be safely used and disclosed,” said the board in a statement.

But Haw points out that the data TREB is anxious to protect is already publicly available, whether someone is buying or selling a home, or they’re just curious about how much a neighbour got for the house down the street.

Sold data is accessible to anyone through the land registry office. But typically, people just call their last real estate agent — one of TREB’s 49,000 members— who is allowed to share the information in a traditional, direct communication.

“Most of the past client calls you get in a year are, ‘So what did it go for?’ ” Haw said.

Many realtors believe such information will eventually, inevitably, become widely available online.

The six-year dispute between the board and Canada’s commissioner of competition is complex, with arguments covering privacy, copyright and competition issues. In June, a competition tribunal ruled that TREB must allow the data to be posted. On Dec. 1, the federal appeal court upheld that decision. But fighting on to the Supreme Court could add another two years to the dispute.

When the board moved to stop online brokerages from publishing sold data, there were fears among TREB members that making the information available could de-value the role of the realtor in the eyes of the public and, ultimately, erode commissions.

But that has not been the case in the U.S., where websites such as Zillow have long published the selling history of properties.

The federal Competition Bureau said on Thursday that it plans to oppose TREB’s application to the Supreme Court “in order to bring greater competition and innovation in real estate services to consumers in the GTA without further delay.”

The Supreme Court hears only a handful of hundreds of applications, but TREB lawyer William Sasso thinks the sold data dispute is a case of national importance.

Meantime, selling prices have been leaking out through a few websites, as well as the usual direct realtor contacts.

That some sites have gone ahead is irksome but not a serious competitive disadvantage, says Haw.

“I cannot comprehend why, as an industry, we are saying that we don’t want our consumer base to be as educated as possible. We just want to share the information consumers are looking for,” she said. “All we have done is put up a gate to make it slower, more difficult.”

Even more traditional companies say they aren’t threatened by the release of sold data on websites that would only be available to clients of brokerage websites, who have a password to access it.

Sotheby’s Canada CEO Brad Henderson understands both sides of the argument, but says that sold data doesn’t affect his company’s value proposition.

Consumers could be drowning in data but starved for information, he said. An agent’s job is to put a transaction in context.

If the only value that you provide as a realtor is that you have a couple of pieces of information, then — whether it’s today, tomorrow or a couple of years from now — you are going to be out of business, said Henderson.

“A real estate transaction is generally the single largest financial decision that anybody is going to make. Over 80 per cent of people want to use a realtor for the primary reason they’re afraid of making a mistake,” said Henderson.

TREB’s lawyer says that the Competition Commissioner hasn’t argued that consumers are entitled to sold data. But making homeowners’ data available online could make it vulnerable for uses that have nothing to do with buying or selling homes, and it may violate privacy legislation, said TREB lawyer William Sasso.

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“There is no argument on the part of the consumer that is put forward in any way shape or form before this (competition) tribunal,” he said. “This is only a case that deals with competition between various members of TREB who have access to the same information.”

There has been no proof that greater competition among the members who have access to sold data would follow from allowing some to publish it on their websites, he added.

Keith McSpurren was hired from outside the real estate industry as CEO of web-based brokerage TheRedPin this year. His company has about 75 agents. It also has a software development team.

He calls the legal battle over sold data “a waste of time and effort and money.”

“You don’t have a leg to stand on in saying you’re serving the needs of consumers in Ontario and beyond by holding this information back from them,” he said.

TREB’s concerns about home owner privacy might be legitimate, but an opt-out option would be doable, said McSpurren.

“I do believe the argument that holding that data back does stifle innovation because it doesn’t allow people like me — non-real estate people— to walk in and say, ‘Oh this is interesting. What’s the secret sauce here to come up with a formula that would not magically change the process but improve it and improve the odds that consumers could get better information when they’re going through the buying process?’ ” he said.

“I’ve got 10 developers sitting outside my door. We can make our formulas better, our algorithms better, if we have this information,” he said. “It doesn’t kill us if we don’t have it but we would very much like to have it.”

Can TREB put the toothpaste back in the tube?

When a federal court of appeal upheld a competition tribunal order that TREB allow its web-based brokers with password-accessible websites, to post sold data, a few companies did exactly that.

So what’s the point of shutting the door on the information now?

“While I can’t get all the toothpaste back in the tube, at least we can get a lot of it back in the tube,” said TREB lawyer William Sasso.

As time passes, the sold information naturally loses its relevance to the market, he said.

“Let’s say the government policies concerning mortgage qualifications in January may have a significant effect on market prices. As people are eager to find the most up-to-date information on the current market, that’s what they’re going to be focused on and that’s what is most significant,” said Sasso.