Proptech company and iBuyer Opendoor is no longer facing the allegations of a copycat commission lawsuit.
On Wednesday, Nathaniel Whaley, the sole plaintiff in the Whaley suit, filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss Opendoor without prejudice. The motion noted that the reason for the dismissal was that Opendoor had not yet served an answer or a motion for summary judgment.
Thus far, Opendoor is the only iBuyer to be named in a commission lawsuit, and the Whaley suit was the only suit in which the firm was named.
Originally filed in the U.S. District Court of Nevada in early January 2024, the Whaley suit (like other commission lawsuits) accuses real estate industry players of colluding to artificially inflate agent commissions.
In the initial complaint, Whaley only named Realtor associations and MLSs as defendants. These organizations included the National Association of Realtors, Las Vegas Realtors, Nevada Realtors, Sierra Nevada Realty, Incline Village Realtors, Elko County Realtors, Mesquite Real Estate Association and Northern Nevada Regional MLS.
In late January, however, Whaley filed an amended complaint that added Opendoor and 14 other real estate firms to the suit. The brokerages and firms named in the amended complaint are Jason Mitchell Group, eXp Realty, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties, Simply Vegas, Urban Nest Realty, Luxury Homes of Las Vegas, Huntington and Willis, Keller Williams Southern Nevada, Keller Williams VIP, Keller Williams Realty Las Vegas, Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace, Engel & Völkers Lake Tahoe, Douglas Elliman of Nevada and Redfin.
Opendoor is the second real estate firm to be voluntarily dismissed from a commission lawsuit this week. On Monday, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services was dismissed from the mammoth Batton II suit. Unlike the Whaley suit, which was filed by a home seller, Batton II was filed by homebuyers.
Opendoor did not return a request for comment.
