Tenth Circuit upholds dismissal of Homie antitrust lawsuit

A lower court’s decision to dismiss Homie Technologies’ antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Anywhere Real Estate, HomeServices of America and REMAX was reaffirmed by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a ruling on Tuesday, the appeals court judges wrote that “Homie has not plausibly alleged that the challenged [NAR] rules were a conspiracy to exclude competitors from the Utah real estate market.” “As a result, neither the boycott actions of individual NAR members nor the NAR’s reissuance and enforcement of the rules constituted a continuing conspiracy,” the ruling stated. “Homie’s claim is therefore untimely. We affirm the district court’s judgment.” Originally filed in mid-August 2024, the lawsuit alleges that Homie was harmed by the anticompetitive practices of NAR and the brokerage defendants. In the complaint, Homie claimed it filed the suit to “recover the damages … suffered as an excluded competitor foreclosed by the Defendants’ conduct from effective competition in the relevant market.” Homie charged sellers a flat fee to list their property on the MLS. While Homie sellers typically offered buyer agent compensation, the firm said these am...