Real Estate News

U.S. real estate brokerages must face home sellers’ class action over commissions

A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday ruled that home sellers accusing the National Association of Realtors and a group of real estate brokerages of conspiring to inflate commission rates can move forward as a class action.

U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood's decision grants class-action status to past home sellers seeking more than $13 billion in damages and creates a separate class of current and future sellers who want a court injunction that bars subsequent violations of U.S. antitrust law.

The lawsuit challenges a requirement that sellers make "blanket unilateral offers of compensation" to buyers' brokers when a home goes on sale via a multiple listing service. That system puts pressure on sellers to offer high commissions to attract buyers' brokers, the sellers claimed.

The class seeking money damages includes certain home sellers who paid a commission between March 2015 and December 2020 in states including Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado, court filings show.

My comments: sellers enlist listing brokers and are given the opportunity to agree or disagree with total commission rates to pay for the sale of their properties…its the approach that listing agents discuss options of not paying the total commission or different rate…did these agents and brokers give the sellers an option or did they force them into a standard fixed rate?

Lawsuit could shake the landscape for buyer’s agents 

Question: Will this class action lawsuit end up paying more to attorneys than plaintiffs?