In May 2008, the DOJ sued the Consolidated Multiple Listing Service of Columbia, S.C., alleging that the operators of the service violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by 1) requiring applicants for membership to discuss the nature of their businesses with a committee of incumbent members who had the power to deny membership to brokers who competed too aggressively; and 2) stabilized the price of brokerage services by fostering brokers to provide a full range of services regardless of the client’s needs. Access to multi-listing services, which are a database of properties available for sale in a given area, are essential to a real estate broker’s ability to compete. As a result, access to them has often been used to stifle competition among brokers. The settlement would require the CMLS to permit any licensed broker to become a member and use the MLS service regardless of the broker’s business model. In addition, it requires the CMLS to repeal rules that prohibited brokers from performing only specific services at a lower cost than the seller would otherwise pay a traditional, full-service broker.