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U.S. real estate brokerages must face home sellers’ class action over commissions

By Mike Scarcella

March 29 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday ruled that home sellers accusing the National Association of Realtors and a group of real estate brokerages of conspiring to inflate commission rates can move forward as a class action.

U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood’s decision grants class-action status to past home sellers seeking more than $13 billion in damages and creates a separate class of current and future sellers who want a court injunction that bars subsequent violations of U.S. antitrust law.

The plaintiffs are seven home sellers. The judge’s order said membership in each class “can be expected to number in the thousands, at minimum.”