Professional Liability Blog

In 2019, Missouri home sellers filed a federal class action lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several corporations intimately involved in the residential real estate market like Keller Williams and Berkshire Hathaway. The lawsuit is captioned, Burnett et al v. National Association of Realtors et al. As the basis for the Plaintiffs’ allegations of conspiracy and violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the class of home sellers argued the NAR’s commission splitting rule constitutes a conspiracy, prevents natural price competition, and forces home sellers to pay higher commission costs than they hypothetically would have if realtor commission terms were negotiated per each unique transaction.