A federal judge gave final approval on Monday to a settlement in an early lawsuit that took aim at offers of compensation on the multiple listing service.
The order wasn’t particularly surprising: Judge Patti Saris had granted preliminary approval of the $3.95 million settlement between the MLS Property Information Network, or MLS PIN, and a group of New England homesellers in June. The case is popularly known as Nosalek after its lead plantiff.
Final approval came after a hearing Monday afternoon.
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The settlement had previously been tied up in part over opposition by the U.S. Department of Justice. Eventually, MLS PIN said it had made the “difficult decision” to remove offers of compensation after the case was filed in 2020 in an effort to move forward.
“While we will no longer be able to offer the optional display of compensation, we will not waver in our commitment to a more transparent real estate market,” MLS PIN spokesperson Melissa Lindberg told Inman in a statement in June. “We’re committed to moving forward with clarity and purpose, and to continuing our support for our subscribers as we deliver exceptional service in an evolving industry.”
Both the Nosalek plaintiffs and MLS PIN first asked for preliminary approval of their settlement in June 2023. Saris made the decision to grant preliminary approval of the latest version of the deal a week after the DOJ withdrew its objections in May.
The federal agency had disagreed with a previous version of the deal in which MLS PIN, a broker-owned MLS not affiliated with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), continued to allow offers of compensation on its Pinergy MLS platform.
By contrast, in NAR’s own nationwide antitrust settlement, the trade group agreed to prohibit offers of compensation on Realtor-affiliated MLSs.
Saris certified the settlement class as those who paid buyer-broker commissions between Dec. 17, 2016 through Monday, in connection with the offer of compensation being listed on Pinergy.
“The Court dismisses with prejudice the action as against MLS PIN, as well as all of the released claims, against any of the released parties by the releasing parties,” Saris wrote in her order on Monday. “The parties are to bear their own costs, except as otherwise provided in the Settlement Agreement, provided that such dismissal shall not affect, in any way, the right of the Releasing Parties to pursue claims, if any, outside the scope of the Released Claims.”
Read the judge’s order here (if the document doesn’t appear, refresh the page]:
