A Missouri jury last week sided with the plaintiffs against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several residential brokerages, finding them guilty of colluding to inflate brokerage commissions.
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh notes in the Bloomberg Law story “Real Estate Verdict Spurs ‘Race to Courthouse’ Over Collusion” that the NAR can defend itself against current and future claims by disputing a conspiracy took place.
“They could show that they had some policy that each agent acts on their own and they are trying to promote competition among the different agents,” says Ghosh. “NAR is a dominant organization of course, but it’s not clear if they were acting as one entity.”