On January 13, the Supreme Court denied NAR’s request to prevent the Department of Justice (DOJ) from reopening an investigation into whether certain NAR policies violate antitrust laws. The Court rejected NAR’s writ of certiorari, which is basically a request for the Court to review a decision by a lower court. This ruling keeps in place a decision from the D.C. Circuit that permitted the DOJ to reopen an investigation into NAR that they had originally closed in 2020. 

This doesn’t have any immediate impact on current NAR policies or anything that you do in your everyday work. The DOJ had started a probe into potentially anti-competitive practices in real estate in 2019, but in 2020 they entered into an agreement (known as a closing letter) that closed the investigation. The DOJ later reopened the investigation, which NAR insisted was prohibited by the language of the closing letter. The federal District Court and Appeals Court disagreed, stating that the language of the closing letter did not prohibit the DOJ from reopening their investigation. With the Supreme Court’s denial of the writ of certiorari, that decision is now final.  

What will eventually come of the DOJ investigation, if anything, is unclear. While this is not tied to the settlement agreement that NAR entered into with private plaintiffs, that settlement could have some impact on the DOJ’s investigation. With a new administration coming into power in Washington, it also remains to be seen what the DOJ’s priorities will be in the coming years. If anything does change in the status of the investigation, the legal team here at VAR will make sure you have the most up-to-date information.