In a complaint filed on February 26, home seller Andrea Freedlund alleges that Redfin, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the California Association of Realtors (CAR) are involved in a conspiracy to inflate real estate agent commissions.
This is the third antitrust commission lawsuit filed in California, following the Grace lawsuit filed in December and the Fierro lawsuit filed in January. Read on for the details.
Details of the Freedlund Lawsuit in California
Freedlund’s lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California, targets Redfin, alleging that the brokerage, along with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the California Association of Realtors (CAR), participated in a conspiracy to inflate the cost of real estate agent commissions.
In September 2021, Freedlund sold her Laguna Niguel, CA, home. Both the buyer and seller were represented by Redfin agents in the transaction, and the buyer agent received a commission of 2% of the sale price.
At the time, Redfin and its agents were members of NAR and CAR and had to abide by the organization’s Participation Rule, or Cooperative Compensation Rule, which requires listing brokers to offer buyer brokers compensation. Because of this rule, Freedlund alleges that she paid an excessively high buyer’s broker commission.
The Freedlund lawsuit is seeking class-action status on behalf of any home seller in the state of California who paid a buyer-broker commission to Redfin or a Redfin buyer agent between October 2019 and October 2023.
Background: Redfin’s Departure from NAR
In October 2023, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman issued a letter announcing Redfin’s decision to leave NAR, citing reasons such as the NAR’s sexual harassment scandal and commission structures. The letter stated that Redfin agents and brokers were free to terminate their NAR memberships if able to do so and still gain access to their local MLS.
The Freedlund complaint specifically focuses on buyer-broker commissions paid to Redfin between October 2019 and October 2023—before Redfin announced its decision to part ways with NAR. With this departure in mind, the lawsuit looks at the time before this split, highlighting how Redfin operated within NAR’s rules regarding commissions.
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