NAR faces new antitrust suit over alleged steering

A broker in Florida is suing the National Association of Realtors (NAR), along with state and local associations and MLSs, for alleged antitrust violations and steering homebuyers into using buyer’s agents. 

Filed late last week by Jorge A. Zea in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s West Palm Beach Division, the lawsuit claims that the defendants engaged in a “coordinated scheme” to restrict consumer choice and maintain elevated prices, harming his brokerage model.

Zea runs www.snapflatfee.com, a brokerage that charges sellers a listing fee in exchange for limited services. Zea’s firm syndicates listings data to the MLS data feeds and Zea forwards all buyer leads “regardless of their origin” directly to the seller. 

In addition to NAR, the complaint also lists a host of other defendants. They include Beaches MLS; Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors; Miami Association of Realtors; Orlando Regional Realtor Association; Florida Gulf Coast MLS; Stellar MLS; Space Coast MLS and Space Coast Association of Realtors; RealMLS; Northeast Florida Association of Realtors; Central Panhandle Association of Realtors; Connecticut Association of Realtors; Smart MLS; West and Southeast Realtors of the Valley; and Midwest Real Estate Data.

According to the complaint, the defendants “directly obstruct(ed) that flow of contact information, intentionally frustrating the essential function” of his service and caused substantial harm.

“Defendants’ coordinated failures and actions have denied plaintiff the opportunity to grow, scale, gain market share, increase revenue, profit, build brand recognition, increase business value and compete fairly, ultimately foreclosing Plaintiff’s ability to establish a leading, cost-saving alternative in the national real estate market,” the filing states. 

Zea also claims that the defendants had their buyer’s agents steer clients away from properties that offered a reduced buyer’s agent commission or removed them entirely. Zea claims agents did this by filtering them out of their client’s search results, omitting them from recommendations or actively disparaging them.

As an example of this, Zea cites a 2024 email sent by Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association, in which the local trade group tells members that giving buyers the seller’s contact information may lead a buyer “to bypass their own contracted agent to seek out the listing agent.”

In doing this, Zea argues that the defendants are “steering them [buyers] towards buyer agent representation.” The complaint also notes that most public listing portals obscure or omit the listing agent’s contact, which Zea argues “reinforces the steering dynamic.” 

The complaint notes that between September 2024 and January 2025, Zea filed at least one ethics complaint over alleged steering with nearly all of the defendants, but all the cases were dismissed. 

​​Zea previously sought to intervene in the approval of the NAR commission lawsuit settlement. In his filing, Zea claimed that an anti-steering stipulation proposed as part of the settlement was modified. 

NAR has previously argued that the introduction of mandatory buyer representation agreements prevents any theoretical steering. The trade group did not immediately return HousingWire’s request for comment.