Real estate industry facing pushback to longstanding rules setting agent commissions on home sales

By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A series of court challenges seek to upend longstanding real estate industry practices that determine the commissions agents receive on the sale of a home — and who foots the bill. One case ended Tuesday with a federal jury in Missouri ordering the National Association of Realtors and some of the nation’s biggest real estate brokerages to pay almost $1.8 billion in damages after finding that they artificially inflated agent commissions. At least two other court cases are pending. At issue: whether home sellers should be forced to pay the commission for the buyer’s agent in order to have their home listed on the widely used Multiple Listings Service.