The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is facing a new federal class-action lawsuit that accuses the trade group of violating antitrust laws.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in South Carolina and accuses NAR and a listing broker affiliated with Keller Williams that listed properties on one of NAR’s Multiple Listing Services. The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of all South Carolina residents who used the Keller Williams broker since November 2019, accused NAR of creating non-negotiable commissions that required sellers to pay the commissions on the buyers’ brokers.
“The effect of these rules is not simply that the seller must pay the buyer broker’s compensation,” the lawsuit said. “These rules effectively take the compensation structure out of the view of the buyers and sellers, masking who pays the buyer broker’s compensation. Indeed, a buyer broker may not even present an offer to a seller that is conditional on the seller reducing the buyer broker commission,” the suit states.
The lawsuit mirrors a similar lawsuit from Missouri that ended with a nearly $1.8 billion judgment against NAR; another lawsuit covering the same issues is scheduled to go trial in Illinois in early 2024.
