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

Washington, DC
CNN
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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