Today, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice filed a
statement of interest in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in the case of
Davis et al. v. Hanna Holdings Inc. The lawsuit, brought by homebuyers, alleges that real-estate brokerages and their trade association, the National Association of Realtors, entered into anticompetitive agreements that inflated broker commissions and raised home prices for Americans. The statement of interest explains that competition among real-estate brokerages is critical for protecting American homebuyers and that trade association rules are subject to antitrust scrutiny in a number of ways.
