The legal battle over commission policy continues as plaintiffs in the MLS PIN lawsuit push back against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) objections to the proposed settlement.
Filed on behalf of homesellers, the lawsuit aims to change the MLS’s established commission rules, but the DOJ has yet again argued that the proposed settlement does not go far enough, but rather “maintains the status quo,” according to the court documents.
Since MLS PIN implemented a settlement-created policy change (separate from the NAR deal) allowing sellers to offer no buyer compensation in July 2024, about 75% of sellers opted out of providing compensation, the plaintiffs argued—representing a clear change in their market.
Juxtaposing its current stance, the DOJ did not officially challenge the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) settlement, the MLS PIN plaintiffs pointed out, which prohibits sharing commission offers on MLSs (though notably, the DOJ filed a separate statement of interest in that case, expressing concerns about aspects of the NAR policy changes).
Further, the plaintiffs claim that in the past 17 months, the DOJ has failed to specify what settlement terms it would find acceptable, something they have repeatedly highlighted to the judge.
“Although the department claims a ‘strong interest in protecting American home sellers and buyers’ and touts that it ‘has long fought to inject competition into residential real-estate markets,’ it has yet to file its own action 17 months after becoming involved in this settlement,” the filing read. “If the department believes that the residential real estate market should be restructured on behalf of buyers, as well as sellers, it remains free to file such a case. The department’s inaction on buyer-broker conduct is no reason to derail a settlement on behalf of sellers that does not, and likely could not, encompass such conduct.”
As part of the proposed settlement, MLS PIN increased the settlement fund from $3 million to $3.95 million to match the NAR settlement buy-in. In return, according to the filing, the plaintiffs agreed to expand the scope of the release to match the scope of the NAR settlement release. The DOJ did not express concern to Judge Bough about the scope of the released parties, according to the MLS PIN plaintiffs.
The settlement was also expanded to include sellers of all MLS PIN properties, rather than solely residential. With this change, there is only a 2% increase in both the value and amount of covered properties, argued the plaintiffs.
Judge Patti Saris, who is overseeing the case, will potentially offer preliminary approval of the settlement at a hearing on April 4.
