Berkshire unit must face suit

A federal judge in Kansas City said Berkshire Hathaway Energy still has to stay in the Gibson commission case, even after its brokerage arm HomeServices of America agreed in 2024 to pay $250 million to settle related claims. The ruling came on April 9 from Judge Stephen R. Bough in the Western District of Missouri. (kfgo.com) The fight is over who paid real estate agents and how that price was set. Home sellers say big brokerages and the National Association of Realtors kept buyer-agent commissions artificially high through shared listing rules and industry pressure. (openhometeam.com) Gibson is one of the big follow-on cases from the Missouri trial that exploded the old commission system. On October 31, 2023, a jury in that earlier Sitzer/Burnett case hit the National Association of Realtors and several brokerages with $1.78 billion in damages. (cnbc.com) That verdict set off a chain reaction. The National Association of Realtors agreed on March 15, 2024, to pay $418 million and change its rules, including ending offers of buyer-broker compensation on Multiple Listing Service databases run by Realtor groups. (voanews.com) Those rule changes took effect on August 17, 2024. From that date, Realtor-affiliated Multiple Listing Service platforms could no longer display blanket offers to pay a buyer’s agent, and buyers had to sign written agreements before touring homes. (nar.realtor) HomeServices made its own deal a month later, agreeing on April 26, 2024, to pay $250 million over four years. The company said the settlement covered nearly 70,000 agents, 51 brands, and more than 300 franchisees. (realestatenews.com) Berkshire Hathaway Energy tried to use that settlement as a shield. Its argument was that the parent company and HomeServices were one economic unit, so if the subsidiary settled, the parent should be out too. (rismedia.com) Judge Bough said no. The court let the claims against Berkshire Hathaway Energy continue, which means the plaintiffs can still try to prove the parent company itself joined the alleged conspiracy instead of just owning a company that did business in the market. (realestatenews.com) That matters because Gibson is not a small side case. It was filed on October 31, 2023, in the same Missouri federal court, and plaintiffs have described it as a nationwide class action aimed at transactions far beyond the three Midwestern states covered in Sitzer/Burnett. (justia.com) (housingwire.com) So even after more than $1 billion in industry settlements, this litigation is still not finished. For Berkshire, the April 9 ruling means more discovery, more trial risk, and more pressure on a commission model that has already been forced to change since August 2024. (kfgo.com) (hbsslaw.com)