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After holding in her real estate license in 2020 amid a misconduct investigation, Gobinder Kaur (Gina) Takhar has now had it officially canceled following an agreement with the BC Financial Services Authority, which also includes a $55,000 fine.

Takhar was found to have committed professional misconduct by failing to disclose the nature of her representation to assignees seeking to purchase two properties in Chilliwack, in 2017.

Between 2010 and 2020, Takhar was licensed as a trading representative with Global Force

The long tradition of home sellers footing the commissions of their buyers’ real estate agents may soon be a thing of the past.

A recent multibillion-dollar class-action verdict in Missouri found that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) along with some of the largest real estate brokerage firms in the country violated antitrust laws by conspiring to inflate and keep sales commissions artificially high. The NAR and other brokerages face a slew of new and older lawsuits that have similar claims.

Already, the suits have ushered in some changes to agreements sellers sign with their real estate agents that set

The National Association of Realtors and two brokerage firms were ordered to pay nearly $1.8 billion in damages to about a half a million home sellers after a federal jury found they had conspired to artificially inflate commissions paid to real estate agents.

The decision could radically alter the home buying process in the US and could potentially lead to a restructuring of the entire real estate industry, lowering the cost of moving homes by reducing commissions, The New York Times reported.

A Missouri jury Tuesday sided with the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, awarding them a total of $1.78

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Using a travel agent to buy a plane ticket or a stockbroker to trade equities seems like relics of the past. And yet, every day, people across America hire a real estate agent to help them sell a home. It’s one of the few industries that has been able to largely avoid the disruption that has helped consumers cut costs in the Internet age.

And that is largely because of the power of the National Association of Realtors, the largest professional organization in America and a significant lobbying group for the real estate industry.

But the

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Editor’s Note: This article appeared in the Winter 2024 print edition of REALTOR® Magazine. For the resources and key developments on pending litigation, turn to competition.realtor.

Since it was handed down in October, the verdict in the Sitzer-Burnett case has been top of mind for the industry. The National Association of REALTORS® has made it clear it intends to appeal the verdict. In the meantime, REALTORS®, members of NAR, should be aware of what the case is about and what it means for them.

The case: Sitzer-Burnett is a class-action lawsuit that was filed in