Real estate industry facing pushback to longstanding rules setting agent commissions on home sales
A series of court challenges are seeking to upend longstanding real estate industry practices that determine the commissions agents receive on the sale of a home — and who foots the bill
LOS ANGELES — A series of court challenges are seeking to upend longstanding real estate industry practices that determine the commissions agents receive on the sale of a home — and who foots the bill.
One case brought in 2019 in federal court in Missouri by a couple of home sellers ended Tuesday with a federal jury ordering the National Association of Realtors and some of the nation's biggest real estate brokerages to pay almost $1.8 billion in damages after finding they artificially inflated commissions paid to real estate agents.
The verdict stated that the defendants “conspired to require home sellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes in violation of federal antitrust law.”
If treble damages — which allows plaintiffs to potentially receive up to three times actual or compensatory damages — are awarded, then the defendants may have to pay more than $5 billion.
“This matter is not close to being final as we will appeal the jury’s verdict,” Mantill Williams, a spokesman for the NAR, said in a statement. “In the interim, we will ask the court to reduce the damages awarded by the jury.”
Williams said it will likely be several years before the case is resolved.
But already the NAR and several real estate brokerages are facing another lawsuit over agent commission rules. Fresh off winning the verdict in the 2019 case, the lawyers filed a new class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri by three different home sellers. It names the trade association and seven brokerage
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