By Andy Medici | Phoenix Business Journal
Hours after a Missouri jury handed down a $1.78 billion verdict against a group of real estate giants in a class-action lawsuit, another set of firms were hit with their own class-action lawsuit.
The verdict in Sitzer/Burnett v. The National Association of Realtors stems from one of two existing class-action lawsuits that targets how the NAR and real estate brokerages decide on real estate commissions. The plaintiffs claimed in the lawsuit the NAR’s “participation rule” and “cooperative compensation” practices unfairly force home sellers to pay inflated commissions to buyer agents.
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“Real estate brokers provide an important service, but this litigation shows yet another way that real estate transactions and the traditional brokerage model are being disrupted. We expect this will continue as consumers gain greater access to information through the use of technology and as the market looks for ways to make residential real estate transactions more efficient.” – Cameron Carter, partner and transactional department director at Rose Law Group.