Opinion | A Big Legal Defeat for the Realtors

The National Association of Realtors has objected to our editorials challenging its anti-competitive business model, but what do you know. On Tuesday a federal jury found the Realtors liable under U.S. antitrust laws for conspiring to fix prices in the class-action case Burnett v. NAR.

Missouri home sellers challenged a Realtor rule requiring seller agents to provide a blanket offer of compensation to a buyer’s broker to list a home on the association’s affiliated multiple-listing service (MLS). These databases of homes for sale are similar to stock exchanges in that they match brokers and sellers. They are also de facto monopolies.