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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has suggested that it will likely approve a fourth amended settlement agreement in the commission lawsuit known as Nosalek, according to a legal filing submitted on Thursday.
The amended settlement negotiated by MLS Property Information Network (PIN) and homeseller plaintiffs would prohibit offers of cooperative compensation on the MLS’s platform, a move that other MLSs previously made in the settlement of the Sitzer | Burnett commission case. It also raises the total proposed settlement fund from $3 million to $3.95 million, which the filing notes is the same amount it would have cost MLS PIN to join NAR’s settlement in Sitzer | Burnett.
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The filing submitted Thursday states that, “in addition to working to address the concerns expressed by the Court following [the April 1] Hearing, Plaintiffs and MLS PIN also conferred with the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice. After considering the proposed amendments, the Division indicated that it would no longer object to the proposed settlement on the basis of Rule 23.”
However, the memorandum in support of preliminary approval of the amended settlement also notes that this doesn’t mean the DOJ is completely finished scrutinizing the case either.
“The parties understand that the Division intends to file a brief statement with the Court withdrawing its previous objection while otherwise retaining all rights to bring a separate enforcement action,” the filing said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the defendants did not immediately respond to Inman’s requests for comment.
A preliminary settlement approval hearing is scheduled for June 10 in Massachusetts federal court.
During the April 1 hearing, Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said she would not approve the proposed settlement unless the scope of the settlement was narrowed to only include residential listings, instead of all real estate listings, within MLS PIN’s service area since other types of properties were not applicable to the case’s plaintiffs. MLS PIN has since made that amendment to the proposed settlement.
MLS PIN was the first defendant in the case to reach a settlement with plaintiffs in 2023. However, the terms of the settlement have continued to be intensely scrutinized by the DOJ, which has delayed the parties from reaching a final settlement. MLS PIN is also broker-owned, and therefore not bound by the terms of NAR’s settlement in antitrust cases. In ultimately agreeing to remove offers of cooperative compensation from its platform, however, the MLS settlement is more in line with that agreed upon in Sitzer | Burnett.
Other defendants in the Nosalek case, including HomeServices of America, Keller Williams, Anywhere and RE/MAX, have all now been granted final approval of their settlements. NAR’s $418 million settlement was granted approval in November.
