The Federal Trade Commission says it has filed a complaint against a Louisiana state real estate appraisers board for allegedly punishing companies that set their fees too low.
As Reuters reports, the FTC, which has pursued organists and other professional organizations for antitrust violations, says that the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board illegally determined a floor for appraiser prices.
“The Board initiated two enforcement actions against AMCs (appraiser companies) for allegedly violating fee requirements under the Board’s regulation,” the FTC says in its complaint. The case is slated to be heard in late January by an FTC administrative law judge.
The Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board says in a statement that the FTC was “just plain wrong” and it would vigorously contest the charges.
“This is not remotely a situation where a group of competitors were sitting around a table fixing prices,” their counsel, Stephen Cannon of the law firm Constantine Cannon LLP, says in an interview.
