Madison, New Jersey-based Anywhere Real Estate Inc. (NYSE: HOUS), formerly known as Realogy Holdings Corp., announced the terms of a settlement agreement to resolve claims brought in two class action lawsuits that the company colluded with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to inflate commissions paid by home sellers.
Under the terms of the proposed nationwide settlement, which is subject to both preliminary and final court approval, Anywhere has agreed to provide monetary relief of $83.5 million. The lawsuits, known as Christopher Moehrl and Sitzer/Burnett, claimed the company ran afoul of the Sherman Antitrust Act in its actions.
The settlement must be approved by the U.S. District Court judges in Illinois (Moehrl) and Missouri (Sitzer/Burnett), where the two cases were filed.
The proposed settlement includes injunctive relief requiring practice changes in Anywhere Advisors, the company’s owned brokerage operations – which includes Coldwell Banker Realty, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty – for a period of five years following final court approval. In the injunctive relief, Anywhere will require company owned brokerages and their affiliated agents to include the listing broker’s offer of compensation for prospective buyers’ agents as soon as possible in each active listing, consistent with MLS rules and/or capabilities of third-party website operators.
Anywhere will also prohibit company owned brokerages and their affiliated agents from using any technology or manual methods to sort listings by offers of compensation, unless requested by the client. The company also agreed to advise and remind company owned brokerages, franchisees, and affiliated agents that the company has no rule requiring offers of compensation. Furthermore, it will no longer require company owned brokerages, franchisees, or affiliated agents to belong to NAR or follow the NAR Code of Ethics or MLS Handbook while ending any minimum client commission requirements that company owned brokerages may have.
“I am pleased that Anywhere has reached a nationwide settlement with the plaintiffs in the Burnett and Moehrl cases,” said Ryan Schneider, Anywhere’s CEO and president. “We believe this is the right course of action to remove future uncertainty and ongoing legal expense, serving the best interests of the company, our affiliated agents and franchisees, and shareholders, and enabling Anywhere to focus on moving real estate to what’s next.”
Anywhere stressed the proposed settlement was not an admission of liability or a concession that the claims asserted against it were valid.
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What was the proof that Anywhere had done anything wrong???
The proof was the closed transactions in the United States which included seller paid co-op commissions to buyers brokers offered through the MLS…