News

By Mike Scarcella

Jan 2(Reuters) - Major court battles will test the scope of U.S. antitrust law for real estate, technology and other industries in 2024.

Here’s a look at some of the key cases and issues to watch in the new year.

Real estate commissions

National residential real estate brokers are facing a litigation blitz over a long-standing industry practice: the buyer broker commission. That’s the payment, sometimes upwards of 6% of a home’s sale price, that a seller makes to an agent who typically splits that with the buyer's agent.

A blockbuster $1.8 billion class-action verdict for home sellers in October in Kansas City, Missouri, rattled the industry, and that case will likely head to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The defendants, including major real estate brokers and their industry trade group, the National Association of Realtors, have since been hit with numerous in California, New York and Texas.

Meanwhile, the D.C. Circuit is expected to announce whether the U.S. Justice Department can resume an investigation of the realtor trade group, or whether a prior settlement will block antitrust investigators. The court heard arguments earlier this month.

A series of cases brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission could spark court rulings that help to expand or rein in the agency's powers.

A Seattle court is expected to rule next year on the FTC’s lawsuit accusing e-commerce giant Amazon AMZN.O of abusing its power to artificially keep prices high. Amazon’s attorneys have defended what they call “common retail practices” and denied any antitrust violations.

In Texas, the FTC will try to convince a judge to green-light its antitrust case against private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe over its investments in the healthcare sector. Attorneys for the firm contend that allowing the FTC to pursue the case would mean “turning decades of settled corporate law on its head.”

The agency’s antitrust case against Facebook, accused of abusing its power in the personal social network market, could head to trial in 2024.

Algorithms and price-fixing

RealPage will face a litigation squeeze in the new year, as the District of Columbia and private plaintiffs pursue claims that the technology company and its revenue management software helped to facilitate a scheme to keep rental prices artificially high for multifamily housing.

A Tennessee federal judge last week said renters' claims can move forward against RealPage, which is accused of conspiring with property managers and owners to overcharge for multifamily housing. The plaintiffs claim RealPage uses industry data provided by the other defendants to keep rents high. RealPage has denied any wrongdoing.

The case hinges on what the Justice Department has called the “new frontier” for alleged price-fixing: computer algorithms like the pricing technology used by RealPage.

The District of Columbia, working with a private law firm, sued RealPage for alleged antitrust violations at the end of 2023. A judge is set to meet with the lawyers in May.

Google’s antitrust woes

Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O will be fighting on a variety of court fronts in the new year, facing off with the U.S. Justice Department, states and corporate plaintiffs such as “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in D.C. will hear closing arguments in May in the Justice Department’s case accusing Google of unlawfully maintaining its dominance over internet search. In Virginia, the government’s challenge to Google’s ad tech business is expected to head to trial.

Lawyers for Epic in the new year will have a chance to argue for an injunction challenging Google’s Play store practices. A jury in San Francisco in December ruled for Epic in a major antitrust challenge over in-app payments and app distribution on Android devices. Google separately agreed to pay $700 million and make some reforms to its Play store in a Dec. 18 deal with consumers and states in related litigation.

Epic mostly lost a similar case against Apple, and it has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that case, including an order that would require it to make some changes to its App Store.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella)

((Mike.Scarcella@thomsonreuters.com;))

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