On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to reopen an investigation into the National Association of Realtors (NAR) over the commissions brokers charge on home sales. The decision effectively allows the DOJ’s investigation to continue, despite the NAR’s legal efforts to block it.
In April, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that federal investigators could reopen their probe into the NAR, which represents real estate professionals nationwide. The NAR had appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that reopening the investigation would violate a 2020 settlement agreement reached between the association and the DOJ during the first term of the Trump administration.
The NAR contended that the government should “honor its word” in settlement agreements, irrespective of political changes in leadership, stressing that the terms of the settlement were meant to be final. The association’s legal team emphasized that the DOJ’s actions under the Biden administration had violated this principle.
A spokesperson for the NAR expressed the group’s commitment to defending its interests, stating that it would continue to take “every possible step to fight for the interests of our members and the consumers they serve.”
The DOJ’s settlement with the NAR in 2020 required the association to provide clearer information about commission structures to consumers and to cease misleading homebuyers into believing that real estate services were free. However, after President Biden took office, the DOJ withdrew from the settlement in 2021, claiming that the agreement did not prevent further investigations into broker fees.
In addition to the DOJ’s investigation, the NAR reached a separate settlement in March with private plaintiffs in a nationwide class action, agreeing to pay $418 million and eliminate commission rules that plaintiffs argued violated antitrust laws. Despite these legal challenges, the NAR has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
As part of the class action settlement, the NAR agreed to allow commission negotiations in home sales and no longer requires agents to make commission offers for houses to be listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the primary platform for most real estate transactions.
The case, titled National Association of Realtors v. United States, remains unassigned in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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