And I appreciate your kind words!
The CNN article just updated to remove the part about the required 6% and I’ve updated the summary to match.
You may be right it’s negotiable, but this lawsuit happened because sellers felt they didn’t have a choice:
The NAR had required homesellers to include the compensation for agents when placing a listing on a multiple listing service. Although NAR has long said commissions are negotiable and that the structure helped making housing more affordable for buyers, critics have long argued that the fees were expected and homesellers felt they would lose buyers if they didn’t offer them.
…
Individual sellers often feel powerless to negotiate a better deal for themselves, given the risk that offering lower commissions could cause brokers to steer buyers to other properties, said Robert Braun, a partner in Cohen Milstein’s antitrust practice.
Can you elaborate? NY Times and Washington Post are reporting the same:
American homeowners could see a significant drop in the cost of selling their homes after a real estate trade group agreed to a landmark deal that will eliminate a bedrock of the industry, the standard 6 percent sales commission.
The real estate group, which represents 1.5 million real estate agents around the country, said it will pay $418 million over four years to settle several cases, along with agreements to change the rules that plaintiffs alleged supported 5 to 6 percent commissions paid by home sellers. The association said it continues to deny wrongdoing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/15/nar-real-estate-commissions-settlement/
You just made my day. Thanks @ptz@dubvee.org!
Hilarious. He said it, therefore he said it.
It’s more of an issue because it’s a foreign company. For example, companies like Facebook (Meta) and Cambridge Analytica can be investigated and regulated by US agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But they have no sway over TikTok’s developer ByteDance because it’s located outside of the US.
That’s what this bill is trying to do: force ByteDance to divest.
While other companies also have issues, TikTok goes further by having strong connection to the PRC:
Lawmakers have long voiced concerns that the Chinese government could access user data or influence what people see on the app, including pushing content to stoke US political divisions.
Who will be eligible for the pilot program
Some taxpayers in Arizona, California, Massachusetts and New York will be eligible for the pilot program during the 2024 tax season that will launch in January. The states have opted to integrate their state taxes with the federal Direct File system.
The Direct File pilot will cover only individual federal tax returns. But once a federal return is filed, taxpayers will be guided to a state-supported tool that they can use to file their state tax return.
Taxpayers in nine other states that do not levy a state income tax – Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming – may also be eligible to participate in the pilot.
From the article:
“They shouldn’t have done this,” Mendes told Insider. “Now they’ll make us work whenever they want. Even though we’re not employees, they’re going to schedule us.”
But also from the article:
Yet, many drivers pushed for the minimum wage, including the worker collective Los Deliveristas Unidos, who also advocated for recent laws that allow drivers to use restaurant restrooms and set delivery perimeters. One reason they advocate for higher wages is to cover the costs of gig work, such as vehicle repair, gas, tolls, and injuries. A 2022 report by the city found that delivery workers have high rates of injury while on the job.
From the article:
and: