"In the commission lawsuits, agents were putting their commissions in the MLS, and you could see what the seller or their listing agent was willing to pay the buyer's agent. And the argument was that sharing that information inflated fees. So, to me, they are very similar. Harrison McAvoy a partner at Shinder Cantor Lerner LLP who specializes in antitrust law thinks that the Optimal Blue suit shares some basic similarities with the commission lawsuits."
"That case was recently settled for $141 million split among 26 defendants. And like the suit against Optimal Blue, the RealPage suit was also filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville. In terms of the theory of competitive harm, this suit falls under the category of a developing area of the law, often referred to as algorithmic conspiracy. It also has a theory of anticompetitive information exchange, McAvoy said."
An 81-page complaint alleges lenders sharing loan information on Optimal Blue engaged in coordinated pricing, effectively creating a cartel and inflating rates. The complaint draws parallels to commission lawsuits where commission visibility in MLS was argued to inflate fees. Attorneys note similarities to prior antitrust litigation against RealPage, a rental-pricing software firm, with plaintiffs overlapping and the RealPage case settling for $141 million. The Optimal Blue suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville. Legal theories cited include algorithmic conspiracy and anticompetitive information exchange, focusing on alleged coordination of pricing and pricing recommendations among originators.
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