A federal appeals court has upheld the landmark settlements that reshaped how American real estate agents are paid, rejecting a challenge from objectors and effectively closing the long-running commission litigation that upended industry practice.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on Wednesday to affirm a district court’s approval of the settlements in the Sitzer/Burnett case, the class-action suit that alleged the National Association of Realtors and major brokerages conspired to inflate sales commissions. In a statement, NAR said it was “pleased with the Court’s order affirming the district court’s decision to approve the settlement agreement.”
What the court decided
The panel tossed out each of the arguments raised by the appellants, a group of objectors who had sought to unwind the deals. They contended that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing, that the payout and its proposed distribution were inadequate, and that the settlement improperly swept in home buyers. The judges were unpersuaded, leaving the district court’s final approval intact.
The ruling preserves NAR’s settlement, under which the trade group agreed to pay $418 million over roughly four years, along with the separate agreements struck by brokerage defendants. Together with deals reached by companies including major franchisors and corporate brokerages, the combined settlements exceeded $876 million and released more than one million NAR members and affiliated organizations from liability.
How the case reshaped the business
The Sitzer/Burnett suit went to trial in Kansas City in October 2023, where a jury sided with a class of home sellers and returned a damages verdict of roughly $1.8 billion — a figure that, under antitrust law, could have been tripled. Rather than face that exposure, NAR and the brokerage defendants settled and agreed to a set of industrywide practice changes.
Those changes, which took effect in 2024, ended the long-standing convention of advertising offers of buyer-agent compensation on Realtor-affiliated multiple listing services. They also required agents to sign written representation agreements with buyers before touring homes, spelling out how the buyer’s agent would be paid. The rules forced brokerages, MLSs and agents to overhaul contracts, training and marketing practically overnight.
The appeal was the last significant obstacle to finality. Its rejection means the settlement terms and the practice changes stand, and the parties that paid to resolve the case keep the liability releases they bargained for. The decision follows a string of favorable outcomes for the trade group, including when the Tenth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a separate antitrust suit brought by discount brokerage Homie.
What it means
For the industry, the verified takeaway is closure. The practice changes agents have operated under for more than a year are now insulated from the primary legal challenge that could have reversed them, and the multi-hundred-million-dollar settlements are secure.
As RealtyWire analysis, the ruling removes a cloud of uncertainty that had hung over brokerage compensation models. With the settlement affirmed, the strategic questions shift from whether the new rules will survive to how buyer-broker agreements and negotiated commissions reshape agent income over the next several years. Related commission cases, such as the Batton settlements involving RE/MAX and Keller Williams, have followed similar paths toward final resolution.
What to watch: whether objectors seek further review, how commission levels move now that cooperative-compensation offers have left the MLS, and whether the Department of Justice — which has pursued its own scrutiny of industry practices — presses for additional changes beyond the private settlements.
