Batton plaintiffs call foul on Anywhere ‘end-run’
Anywhere and three other brokerages opted into a separate homebuyer commissions settlement, but Batton lawyers claim it’s an attempt to settle “on the cheap.”
Attorneys representing the homebuyer plaintiffs in the Batton case want to have a say in a similar commissions lawsuit — Tuccori — after it was revealed that Anywhere Real Estate was among several brokerages to opt into the Tuccori settlement.
The Batton plaintiffs and their counsel filed a motion to intervene in the case on Feb. 24, one day after the Tucorri plaintiffs filed a request for preliminary approval of opt-in settlements from Anywhere and three other firms.
Untangling the web of cases: The Batton case was originally filed in 2021; a subsequent case filed by the same homebuyer plaintiffs in 2023 was dubbed Batton 2. Both lawsuits allege that NAR and large residential real estate brokerages conspired to inflate buyer-broker commissions, mirroring the claims made in Sitzer/Burnett and Gibson.
The two Batton cases named a total of 12 defendants including Anywhere, Keller Williams, REMAX, Compass, eXp, Redfin and others.
In January 2024, another homebuyer, Tuccori, sued At World Properties claiming a similar conspiracy.
In July 2025, a case known as Cwynar was filed by a homebuyer in Illinois and named The Real Brokerage, Realty ONE Group, The Agency and Vanguard Properties as defendants.
In October 2025, six related cases were folded into Tuccori, and a preliminary agreement was reached with 11 defendants totaling roughly $3.2 million.
In January 2026, The Real Brokerage joined the Tuccori settlement. Cwynar agreed to stay his case against Real and is now a plaintiff in Tuccori.
The latest joiners: The Tuccori settlement included a clause allowing brokerages litigating the same claims in other cases to participate in the deal (NAR's settlement in Sitzer/Burnett included a similar opt-in procedure).
In a Feb. 23 filing, Tuccori plaintiffs reiterated the court's preliminary approval of the October settlements and opt-in clause. The filing also revealed that in addition to Real, three other brokerages had joined the deal — Anywhere, The Keyes Company and Illustrated Properties, and Vanguard Properties — noting that "each agreement was reached only after intensive negotiations, the exchange of mediation briefs and other relevant information, and weeks of direct negotiations."
The four firms agreed to pay a combined $10.8 million into the settlement fund, an amount deemed "fair, reasonable, and adequate when considering the substantial benefits to the Settlement Class Members balanced against the risks, cost, and delay of litigation," the filing states.
The response from Batton: Not so fast, said the Batton plaintiffs in their Feb. 24 response. The motion to intervene focuses on Batton's "valuable claims against Anywhere," which is not a defendant in Tuccori and was not disclosed as a settlement party prior to the Feb. 23 filing.
"After years of litigation and after the Batton Court appointed Batton as class counsel — Plaintiffs and Anywhere in this action, which has never included Anywhere and has not progressed beyond motion to dismiss briefing, seek to end-run the Batton litigation … and to release Batton Plaintiffs' claims against Anywhere on the cheap at the expense of class members," the Batton attorneys wrote.
The deal, they suggested, should be scrutinized to determine if it resulted from a reverse auction, whereby a defendant shops around for the lowest settlement. The "reverse auction" claim was also raised by Gibson plaintiffs when eXp and Weichert opted to settle in a smaller commissions case known as Hooper. Those settlements received preliminary approval last May.
Based on their successful negotiation of a $20 million settlement with Keller Williams earlier this month, the Batton attorneys asserted that they "are clearly the best able to represent the interests of Batton Plaintiffs and class members, as well as members of the Anywhere settlement class."