Business


Realtors are being deluged with class-action lawsuits threatening to upend the traditional real estate compensation system, with 16 “copycat” cases filed in the wake of a mammoth $1.78 billion verdict handed down last October against top industry groups.Two California lawsuits filed this month — one in Los Angeles and one in Sacramento — brought to 20 the number of federal court cases seeking to end requirements that home sellers pay agents for the buyers.
The lawsuits name the National Association of Realtors and more than 200 other industry groups in 11 states as defendants. Since the Oct. 31 verdict against NAR and two real estate brokerages, new cases surfaced in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
At least four of the cases were filed on behalf of a nationwide class of home sellers or buyers. A state case also has been filed in the Florida Panhandle, according to news reports.
The actions accuse real estate industry groups of conspiring to keep agent compensation artificially high by requiring sellers to offer payment as a condition for listing homes in broker-affiliated databases, often called the MLS.
Using terms like “anticompetitive” and “conspiracy,” law firms have blamed Realtors for pocketing rising commissions tied to escalating home prices, even as technology has cut sales costs.
See also: Accused of price-fixing, Realtors talk change at annual convention
“Defendants conspired and continue to conspire to restrain trade by causing (homeowners) to pay buyer broker fees and inflated commissions on home sales,” said the latest California lawsuit, filed on behalf of a Sacramento home seller. “Because housing prices significantly increased, … the dollar amount of commissions is increasing at the same time the work done by buyer …

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