Ninth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment for National Association of Realtors in Key Antitrust Case

We are pleased to announce that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed summary judgment in favor of our client, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in a significant antitrust case.

The case, brought by REX Real Estate Exchange Inc., alleged that NAR and Zillow Group Inc. had conspired to harm REX's online visibility through a purported agreement in violation of the Sherman Act. The Ninth Circuit panel unanimously affirmed the district court’s decision that REX failed to present sufficient evidence in support of these claims to withstand summary judgment.

As our partner Chris Michel argued before the Ninth Circuit, "NAR's optional model rule is not an agreement with anyone to do anything. It is fully optional." The Court agreed, ruling that "REX cannot prove that Zillow and NAR committed to a common, anti-competitive scheme."
We are grateful to our co-counsel at Cooley LLP, who represented NAR alongside us.

The team at QE includes Partners Chris Michel, Mike Bonanno, and William Burck, as well as Associates Michael Sebring and Daniel Mummolo.