The Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially withdrawn its objections from MLS PIN’s settlement in the Nosalek lawsuit in a filing today. However, the DOJ appears to have left the door open, not waiving its right to enforce future action on MLS PIN if necessary.
MLS PIN’s settlement in the Nosalek case has been long conflicted since the DOJ announced its objections to the first version of the agreement. MLS PIN has now reached a new proposed settlement agreement that more closely adheres to the National Association of REALTORS®’ settlement, now stating that MLS PIN will remove commission offers from its platform.
Following the announcement of the revised settlement, lawyers for MLS PIN told Judge Patti Saris that the DOJ dropped its objections to the agreement and would later file a statement on this, which the DOJ did today.
This was a shift from previous reports, where back in January MLS PIN stated that the DOJ had rejected its offer to align with NAR’s settlement. The reason for the shift is unknown.
The statement does indeed signal that the DOJ has removed its objections, but also notes that the organization “takes no position on whether this proposed settlement is ‘fair, reasonable, and adequate’ such that the Court may approve it.”
“To be clear, the United States maintains that blanket, upfront offers of buyer broker compensation by sellers or their listing agents constitute an anticompetitive practice that inflates costs for home buyers and sellers,” the filing states. “But the question whether a private settlement satisfies Rule 23(e) differs in kind from whether the relief afforded by such a settlement would suffice in a public enforcement action.”
The DOJ also stated in the filing that it does not waive any right to enforce action on MLS PIN, as the settlement itself nor future compliance with the settlement “preclude any future enforcement actions by the United States.”
DOJ lawyers gave a similar statement at the Burnett hearing last November, saying it would “waive any right” to enforce action in that case as well, despite the approval of the NAR settlement. The MLS PIN filing explicitly referred the that previous “statement of interest.”
