Realty ONE Group is caught up in two waves of real estate commission antitrust litigation. It agreed in April 2024 to pay $5 million to settle seller-side claims that it participated in inflating broker commissions, but that money has not been distributed because objectors appealed the settlement to the Eighth Circuit. In June 2025, a homebuyer filed a new class action pulling the company back into court on buyer-side claims, and Realty ONE Group has since opted into a separate settlement in an attempt to resolve those claims as well.
The $5 Million Seller-Side Settlement
On April 24, 2024, Realty ONE Group announced a nationwide settlement covering the company, its franchisees, and its affiliated agents.1HousingWire. Realty ONE Group Joins Growing List of Firms to Settle Commission Lawsuits The dollar figure wasn’t disclosed publicly at the time. Court filings later confirmed it was $5 million.2Real Estate Commission Litigation. Gibson Settlement Information
The settlement resolved claims filed by home sellers who alleged that National Association of Realtors rules — enforced through brokerages like Realty ONE Group — required them to offer compensation to buyer-agents through the MLS as a condition of listing, eliminating competition on commission rates. Realty ONE Group had been named as a defendant in related cases filed in Arizona, Missouri, Northern California, and Nevada. CEO and founder Kuba Jewgieniew framed the decision as a business call, saying the company didn’t “want to spend any more time with the distractions that litigation tends to bring.”3Real Estate News. Realty ONE, @properties Reach Settlements in Commission Cases
The claims were consolidated into Gibson et al. v. National Association of Realtors et al. (Case No. 4:23-cv-00788-SRB) in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.4U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Gibson et al. v. National Association of Realtors et al. Judge Stephen R. Bough granted final approval to eight brokerage settlements, including Realty ONE Group’s, on October 31, 2024.5HousingWire. Court Grants Final Approval to Eight Brokerage Settlements in Gibson Suit
Why the Settlement Money Hasn’t Been Paid
Final approval didn’t end the case. Beginning December 2, 2024, objectors filed appeals with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit challenging the fairness of the settlements.2Real Estate Commission Litigation. Gibson Settlement Information
At oral argument on January 14, 2026, before Judges Lavenski Smith, Ralph Erickson, and Jonathan Kobes in St. Louis, attorney Daniel Booker argued for one group of objectors that the settlement amounts were “pennies-on-the-dollar” and that the district court had approved them without reviewing the settling companies’ actual financial data.6Real Estate News. Appellants Have Their Final Say About Commissions Settlements A separate group of homebuyer objectors argued that the settlements improperly required buyers to release their claims even though the underlying cases had been brought on behalf of sellers.7Bloomberg Law. Huge Realtor Settlement Appeals Get Probed for Fairness, Scope
Attorneys defending the settlements argued that no realistic alternative had been proposed and that unwinding the agreements would trigger years of additional litigation. NAR’s counsel said including both buyers and sellers in the release had been essential to reaching the $418 million NAR settlement.6Real Estate News. Appellants Have Their Final Say About Commissions Settlements A decision was expected by late spring or early summer of 2026. Until the Eighth Circuit rules, Realty ONE Group’s $5 million cannot become final and no money can be paid to class members.2Real Estate Commission Litigation. Gibson Settlement Information
The 2025 Homebuyer Lawsuit
On June 28, 2025, Illinois homebuyer Kevin Cwynar filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Realty ONE Group, The Real Brokerage, Vanguard Properties, and The Agency.8Inman. Buyer Antitrust Suit Alleges Real, Realty ONE, Vanguard and The Agency Conspiracy Kempa and Associates, a Realty ONE Group franchisee operating as Realty ONE Group Excel, is also named.9Inman. Cwynar Complaint
The theory is the mirror image of the seller cases. Cwynar alleges that the same NAR rules caused homebuyers to pay inflated prices because buyer-agent commissions were embedded into listing prices without buyers’ knowledge or ability to negotiate them.10Real Estate News. New Commissions Case Pulls in Brokerages That Settled The complaint says the brokerages conspired with NAR to enforce mandatory commission offers, block buyers from negotiating those commissions down, conceal what buyer-agents were actually paid, and allow agents to filter searches by commission amount, steering buyers toward higher-paying listings.9Inman. Cwynar Complaint
The suit seeks to represent a nationwide class of people who bought homes listed on a NAR-affiliated MLS, plus an Illinois subclass. It claims violations of the federal Sherman Antitrust Act, the Illinois Antitrust Act, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.9Inman. Cwynar Complaint NAR is named as a co-conspirator but not as a defendant.11HousingWire. New Homebuyer Commission Lawsuit Illinois
The earlier $5 million settlement doesn’t shield Realty ONE Group here because those releases covered claims brought by sellers, not by buyers.12RISMedia. The Real Brokerage and Realty ONE Group Face New Homebuyer Lawsuit One hurdle the case faces is whether homebuyers qualify as “indirect purchasers” of brokerage services. Under the Illinois Brick doctrine, indirect purchasers generally cannot sue under federal antitrust law, though they may still proceed under state antitrust statutes.13SDMLS. Real Estate Lawsuits and Trends A related buyer-side case, Batton, was previously dismissed in part on that ground.14Inman. Defendants’ Joint Motion to Dismiss in Batton v. Compass
Realty ONE Group’s Response: The Tuccori Opt-In
Rather than fight the buyer case, Realty ONE Group and Realty ONE Group Excel opted into a separate settlement on April 15, 2026 in Tuccori et al. v. At World Properties, et al., a homebuyer antitrust class action.15HousingWire. Agency, Realty ONE Tuccori Settlement In Tuccori, NAR agreed to pay $52.25 million into a settlement fund. The deal includes an opt-in mechanism letting brokerages facing similar litigation resolve buyer-side claims through the same framework, provided they follow NAR’s post-settlement rules and don’t assert contrary claims.16National Association of Realtors. NAR Reaches $52.25M Settlement in Tuccori Homebuyer Class Action Lawsuit
After opting in, Realty ONE Group and The Agency asked the court to stay the Cwynar case pending final approval of Tuccori. The Tuccori settlement was still awaiting court approval as of the most recent reports, and Realty ONE Group declined to comment on the Cwynar lawsuit.12RISMedia. The Real Brokerage and Realty ONE Group Face New Homebuyer Lawsuit15HousingWire. Agency, Realty ONE Tuccori Settlement
What Changed for Buyers and Sellers
The lawsuits reshaped how commissions work at the transaction level. Under the NAR settlement, new rules took effect August 17, 2024. Buyer-agent compensation can no longer be published on the MLS, and agents must sign written agreements with buyers specifying their compensation before showing any homes. Those agreements must state that commissions are fully negotiable and not set by law.17National Association of Realtors. NAR Settlement FAQs
The financial impact has been smaller than expected. One year in, average buyer-agent commissions had ticked up from 2.38% in spring 2024 to 2.43% in spring 2025, and sellers continued to pay buyer-agent commissions in most transactions, in part because high inventory gave buyers leverage to demand it.18Real Estate News. After a Year of NAR’s New Rules, Commissions Are Up The clearer change is procedural: commission conversations now happen up front rather than being embedded silently in the transaction.