Following the industry-shaking ruling in Missouri in the Burnett-Sitzer commissions case, more sellers are filing lawsuits across the country, taking on both realtor associations and brokerages alike. The latest include suits filed in recent days in South Carolina and New York.
Homeseller Shauntell Burton filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina,seeking class-action status against the National Association of Realtors and Keller Williams.
“The cornerstone of Defendants’ conspiracy is NAR’s adoption and implementation of a rule that requires all seller’s brokers to make a blanket, unilateral and effectively non-negotiable offer of buyer broker compensation (the “Adversary Commission Rule”) when listing a property on a Multiple Listing Service,” the complaint states. “The conspiracy herein complained of has multiple illogical, harmful, irrational, and anticompetitive effects, including that it: (a) requires sellers to pay supra-market rates for services provided by buyer brokers to the buyer, the seller’s adversary in the transaction; (b) raises, fixes, and maintains buyer broker compensation at levels that would not exist in a competitive marketplace; (c) encourages and facilitates steering and other agency costs that impede innovation and entry into the market by new and lower-cost real estate brokerage service providers.”
The scope of the South Carolina suit seeks class certification on behalf of “the South Carolina MLS Class,” defined as: “All persons who, from November 6, 2019 through the present, used a listing broker affiliated with Keller Williams Realty, Inc. in the sale of a home listed on one of the MLSs that comprise the real estate market of the District of South Carolina.”
Up in New York, a seller filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the Real Estate Board of New York and more than 20 real estate companies challenging commission-sharing rules. Monty March alleges REBNY rules governing the local MLS in Manhattan kept commissions high and violated state and federal antitrust laws, per Inman.
The New York lawsuit also names Douglas Elliman, Christie’s International Real Estate, Coldwell Banker, Compass, the Corcoran Group, SERHANT and RE/MAX in the case. It does not, however, name NAR.