The long-standing legal battle between the Competition Bureau of Canada and the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) over access to vital home buying information continued last month as both sides made arguments at a three-member competition tribunal.

The decision of the tribunal could have a major impact on how real estate transactions are conducted in the city by forcing the board to allow real estate information, particularly the sold price of recent and past transactions only available through the real estate board’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS), to become more easily shared online with prospective buyers. But TREB continues to voice concerns over privacy issues.

A win for the Competition Bureau could open up the local sales market, allowing for online competitors offering up comparable real estate services at a discounted price.

Such discounted services exist, but they can not access the MLS system because you need to be an authorized TREB Realtor to do so.

“Today, consumers are demanding a greater selection of service and pricing options when buying or selling their homes, and many agents are eager to accommodate them,” said Melanie Aitken, former commissioner of competition in a statement when the application was first launched back in 2011. “Yet TREB’s leadership continues to impose anti-competitive restrictions on its members that deny consumer choice and stifle innovation.”

The issue is the amount of information the real estate board allows realtors to make available online through its Multiple Listing Service and whether or not the restrictions are anti-competitive. On one side, the Competition Bureau is indicating that TREB is restricting competition through its actions, whereas TREB continues to argue that it is all about the privacy of consumers.

“Consumers have rights under Canadian privacy laws,” said John DiMichele, CEO of TREB, in a prepared statement.

“They have a choice as to how their personal information is collected, used and disclosed including the display and disclosure over the internet. The Toronto Real Estate Board will continue to work to protect the personal information entrusted to it and its Realtor members by consumers.”

Last month, TREB sought the removal of one of the judges overseeing the tribunal, Justice Paul Crampton, but the request was rejected. The hearing commenced on Sept. 10, 2012, and is ongoing this month.