In a recent executive order, President Biden asked the Federal Trade Commission to “adopt rules to address unfair or exclusionary practices in the real-estate industry” and the Justice Department has opened an investigation into home sale commissions into order to promote competition and make the field easier for buyers.

Many point to the National Association of Realtor’s rules as the biggest roadblock to change as they require sellers to offer commissions to would-be buyers’ brokers, which consumers state this leads to sellers offering higher rates to attract more buyers. However, the National Association of Realtor’s disagrees, and states that commissions are fully negotiable and declining with rates decreasing from 5.45% in 2012 to 4.9% currently.

The Justice Department states that Americans paid more than $85 billion in home sale commissions last year and that current industry practices “may harm home sellers and home buyers” and is withdrawing from a proposed Trump administration settlement with NAR. The Justice Department claims this initial investigation was too favorable to the industry and did not “sufficiently address the way buyer-broker commissions are set.” NAR will be filing a petition against this motion and is seeking to block their investigation of industry practices.

“The litigation and the government attention that the industry is getting now is unprecedented,” said Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America. Overall, if the Justice Department investigation continues, it could lead to an antitrust suit and eventual Sanctions on the industry. However, it is unlikely for the FTC to enact changes anytime soon due to their oversight process.