Keller Williams & RE/MAX Settlement: Approved, Not Yet Paid

At a glance

Status

Approved, awaiting payment

Defendant

Keller Williams Realty, LLC; RE/MAX, LLC

Settlement fund

$28,500,000

Claim deadline

August 25, 2026

No-proof cash option

No

Estimated payout

pro rata cash share; proof of purchase (date, address, commissions paid) required

Administrator

A.B. Data, Ltd.

Official site

homebuyerlitigation.com

Court

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Case number

21 C 430

Last verified August 27, 2026

Key dates

Milestone	Date	What it means
Claim deadline	August 25, 2026(passed)	Last day to file for a payment
Opt-out (exclusion) deadline	June 23, 2026(passed)	Last day to leave the settlement and keep the right to sue
Objection deadline	None listed	Last day to object to the terms
Final approval hearing	August 4, 2026(passed)	When the judge decides whether to approve the settlement
Expected payout	Not yet scheduled	Payments are not sent until after final approval and any appeals

Where to file

Keller Williams & RE/MAX Home Buyer Commission Antitrust Settlement is administered by A.B. Data, Ltd.. The only place to file is the official settlement website:

Verify on the official site

homebuyerlitigation.com

Filing is free. No legitimate settlement charges a fee to file a claim.

You cannot file on RecordingLaw.com. We are an independent publisher, not the settlement administrator, and we are not affiliated with any court, agency, or defendant.

The claim deadline for the Keller Williams and RE/MAX commission antitrust settlement was August 25, 2026, and that window has closed. This is not a data breach. It is an antitrust settlement over home-purchase commissions, part of a larger lawsuit originally filed against several real estate brokerages and franchisors. Keller Williams Realty and RE/MAX have agreed to pay a combined $28.5 million to resolve the claims against them. Here is what the case alleges, who is actually covered, and what filing a claim requires.

What the lawsuit is about

This case is not about a hacked database or stolen personal information. It is an antitrust lawsuit over how real estate commissions get set when someone buys a home. The underlying case, captioned Batton v. National Association of Realtors, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, case number 21 C 430, against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and a group of major brokerages and franchisors.

Keller Williams Realty and RE/MAX are two of the defendants named in that broader case, and they are the two that reached this particular settlement. The claims accuse them of practices that kept buyer-broker commissions higher than a competitive market would produce for people who purchased homes listed on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Keller Williams and RE/MAX deny wrongdoing; the settlement resolves the claims against them without either company admitting liability. NAR and any other remaining defendants in the underlying case are not part of this particular settlement fund, and this page covers only the Keller Williams and RE/MAX fund.

In plain terms, the inflated-commission theory behind cases like this one goes like this: for years, a buyer's agent commission was typically set upfront by the seller's side and published through the MLS before a buyer ever met their agent, rather than negotiated directly between the buyer and the agent representing them. Plaintiffs argue that structure discouraged price competition among buyer's agents and kept commission rates higher, and more uniform, than they would be in a market where buyers could freely negotiate what they pay for representation. Keller Williams and RE/MAX have not admitted that this happened; the settlement resolves the claims without a trial or a finding of liability against either company.

Under the deal, Keller Williams and RE/MAX will pay a combined $28.5 million. Court filings describe that total as a $20 million contribution from Keller Williams and $8.5 million from RE/MAX, though the settlement's official website lists only the combined figure, not the individual breakdown. Keller Williams and RE/MAX are also named in other, separate real estate commission antitrust litigation working through federal courts nationwide; this page covers only the Batton settlement fund described above, not any other case or fund those companies may be party to.

Where this stands right now

As of September 9, 2026, this settlement has received final court approval. The exclusion deadline, the date by which someone could leave the class entirely and keep the right to sue Keller Williams and RE/MAX separately, was June 23, 2026. That date has already passed. Opting out is different from objecting: objecting means staying in the class while telling the judge you think the deal is unfair. The record reviewed for this page does not list a separate objection deadline, and the window for either step has now closed with the hearing.

The final approval hearing, also called a fairness hearing, was held on August 4, 2026, in Chicago before Judge LaShonda A. Hunt. The court granted final approval that same day, finding the settlements fair, reasonable, and adequate, and entered judgment dismissing the settled claims with prejudice. The order entered for the RE/MAX settlement is posted as a court document on the official settlement site. Unusually, the claim deadline of August 25, 2026 fell after the hearing date, so claims were still accepted for three weeks after the judge ruled. That window has now closed, and no payout date has been set. Funds like this one typically are not distributed until after the claim deadline passes and any appeal period runs, so there is no confirmed date yet for when money would actually go out.

Who's actually in the class

The class covers individuals and entities who purchased U.S. residential real estate that was listed on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) during the covered period. That period runs through April 14, 2026, but the start date is state-specific, going back as early as January 25, 2006 depending on where the purchase happened. In plain terms, if you bought a home listed on an MLS sometime in roughly the last two decades and a buyer's agent commission was part of that transaction, you may be part of this class, but your state's exact starting date determines whether your specific purchase counts.

This is a broad, nationwide class by design. It is not limited to one state, one brokerage's customers, or one type of property; the common thread is simply an MLS-listed purchase inside the covered window. That said, membership is not automatic just because you bought a house at some point. Because the record reviewed for this page does not list every state's individual start date, do not assume you are covered, or excluded, based on a rough guess. Check your purchase date and location against the official Notice and FAQ page before deciding whether to file, and keep in mind that entities, such as an LLC or trust that purchased property, may also qualify, not only individual buyers.

How much you can realistically expect

There is no fixed per-person payout. The $28.5 million fund will be divided pro rata among everyone who files a valid claim, and your share depends on how many people file, what the court-approved plan of allocation says, and what the court approves for attorneys' fees, costs, and any service awards to the named plaintiffs. These figures are estimates from a common fund and may be adjusted up or down; no specific amount is guaranteed to any claimant.

Because this is a nationwide class covering roughly two decades of home purchases, the pool of potential claimants could be large, and a large claimant pool tends to shrink individual shares in a fixed fund. The record does not state a minimum or typical payment, so treat any number you see, here or anywhere else, as an estimate rather than a promise. A commission on a home purchase is often a meaningful dollar figure, but a pro rata share of a $28.5 million fund split among a nationwide class of homebuyers is very unlikely to fully reimburse anyone's actual commission cost.

What proof you need to file

Unlike some settlements that offer a no-proof, flat-payment option, this one does not. To file a claim, you generally need documentation showing the purchase date, the property address, and the commission you paid, such as a closing statement, settlement sheet, HUD-1, or similar transaction record. Gather that paperwork before you start; the official claim form spells out exactly what it accepts and how to submit it.

If you no longer have the original paperwork, start by checking with the title company or closing attorney who handled the transaction, or your county recorder's office, which typically keeps public property transfer records. Do not send original documents if the process asks only for copies; keep your own file of whatever you submit.

How filing works

Filing happened only through the official claims process, administered by A.B. Data, Ltd. on behalf of the court; the link to the official site renders separately on this page. The deadline to file was August 25, 2026 and it has passed, final approval was granted on August 4, 2026, and that site is now where payment updates will appear.

If you're not sure you qualify, or the window has already closed for you

The claim window closed on August 25, 2026, so if you never filed, there is nothing further to submit in this claims process. The court granted final approval on August 4, 2026, so the case is resolved as to Keller Williams and RE/MAX, and check whether a later claims period opens for any other defendant still litigating in the underlying case.

This settlement does not involve a reported breach of personal information, so the credit-freeze and identity-monitoring steps that make sense after an actual data breach do not apply here. If you are unsure whether your specific home purchase falls inside the class period for your state, the official Notice and FAQ page is the authoritative source, not a rough estimate.

For other open, currently verified settlements, see RecordingLaw's data breach and privacy settlement tracker.