The settlement — which still requires court approval — asks to stay all further proceedings related to Howard Hanna while the proposed settlement moves through the approval process.
The company has not admitted to any wrongdoing, and the notice emphasizes that Howard Hanna is not waiving any legal defenses if the deal falls through or is challenged later.
The lawsuit — filed in late 2023 by home sellers Don Gibson, Lauren Criss, John Meiners and Daniel Umpa — is one of several cases that followed the landmark Seat/burnet trial.
In that case, a Missouri jury in October 2023 found the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several major brokerages liable for nearly $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to inflate real estate agent commissions paid by home sellers.
At the center of these cases was a long-standing industry rule that required sellers to offer compensation to buyer’s agents through local multiple listing services (MLSS).
The plaintiffs argued that this practice amounted to price fixing, reducing competition and driving up costs for consumers in violation of federal antitrust laws.
The Gibson case is one of several still pending in federal courts, all targeting the same commission structure. Howard Hanna now joins other large real estate firms in reaching or seeking settlements.
