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Commitments And Contingencies (Notes) | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2024
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block] | COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Litigation The Company is involved in various claims, legal proceedings, alternative dispute resolution and governmental inquiries or regulatory actions, including the matters described below. Litigation and other disputes are inherently unpredictable and subject to substantial uncertainties. Even cases brought by us can involve counterclaims asserted against us and even in matters in which we are not a named party, regulatory investigations and other litigation can have significant implications for the Company, particularly to the extent that changes in industry rules and practices can directly impact us. In addition, litigation and other legal matters, including class action lawsuits, multi-party litigation and regulatory proceedings challenging practices that have broad impact, can be costly to defend and, depending on the class size and claims, could be costly to settle. Certain types of claims, such as RESPA and antitrust laws, generally provide for joint and several liability and treble damages. Insurance coverage may be unavailable for certain types of claims (including antitrust and Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") litigation), insurance carriers may dispute coverage, and even where coverage is provided, it may not cover the full amount of losses the Company incurs. The Company believes that it has adequately accrued for legal matters as appropriate. The Company records litigation accruals for legal matters when it is both probable that a liability will be incurred, and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. Where the reasonable estimate of the probable loss is a range, the Company records as an accrual in its financial statements the most likely estimate of the loss, or the low end of the range if there is no "most likely" estimate. For other litigation described on the following pages, management is unable to provide a meaningful estimate of the possible loss or range of possible losses that could potentially result from such litigation. The captioned matters described herein cover evolving, complex litigation and the Company assesses its accruals on an ongoing basis taking into account the procedural stage and developments in the litigation. The Company could incur charges or judgments or enter into settlements of claims, based upon future events or developments, with liabilities that are materially in excess of amounts accrued and these judgments or settlements could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations or cash flows in any particular period. As such, an increase in accruals for one or more of these matters in any reporting period may have a material adverse effect on the Company's results of operations and cash flows for that period. From time to time, even if the Company believes it has substantial defenses, it may consider litigation settlements based on a variety of circumstances. All of these matters are presented as currently captioned, but as noted elsewhere in this Quarterly Report, Realogy Holdings Corp. has been renamed Anywhere Real Estate Inc. Antitrust Litigation As disclosed in Note 15, "Commitments and Contingencies—Litigation" to the Consolidated Financial Statements in our 2023 Form 10-K, the Company has been named in a number of class actions covering sellers of homes utilizing a broker during the class period that challenge residential real estate industry rules and practices that require an offer of compensation and payment of buyer-broker commissions and certain alleged associated practices, including in the following cases: •Burnett, Hendrickson, Breit, Trupiano, and Keel v. The National Association of Realtors, Realogy Holdings Corp., Homeservices of America, Inc., BHH Affiliates LLC, HSF Affiliates, LLC, RE/MAX LLC, and Keller Williams Realty, Inc. (U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri) (formerly captioned as Sitzer); •Moehrl, Cole, Darnell, Ramey, Umpa and Ruh v. The National Association of Realtors, Realogy Holdings Corp., Homeservices of America, Inc., BHH Affiliates, LLC, The Long & Foster Companies, Inc., RE/MAX LLC, and Keller Williams Realty, Inc. (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois); and •Nosalek, Hirschorn and Hirschorn v. MLS Property Information Network, Inc., Realogy Holdings Corp., Homeservices of America, Inc., BHH Affiliates, LLC, HSF Affiliates, LLC, RE/MAX LLC, and Keller Williams Realty, Inc. (U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts). In October 2023, the Company agreed to a settlement, on a nationwide basis, of all claims asserted or that could have been asserted against Anywhere in the Burnett, Moehrl and Nosalek cases, including claims asserted on behalf of home sellers in similar matters (the “Anywhere Settlement”) and the court granted final approval of the Anywhere Settlement on May 9, 2024. The final approval has been appealed by several parties, including a plaintiff class member from the Batton buy-side case (described below), specifically claiming that the release in the Anywhere Settlement should not release any buy-side claims that sellers may also have. The Anywhere Settlement releases the Company, all subsidiaries, brands, affiliated agents, and franchisees from all claims that were or could have been asserted by all persons who sold a home that was listed on a multiple listing service anywhere in the United States where a commission was paid to any brokerage in connection with the sale of the home in the relevant class period. The Anywhere Settlement is not an admission of liability, nor does it concede or validate any of the claims asserted against Anywhere. Under the terms of the nationwide Anywhere Settlement, Anywhere has agreed to injunctive relief as well as monetary relief of $83.5 million, of which $30 million has been paid and the remaining $53.5 million will be due within 21 business days after all appellate rights are exhausted. The Anywhere Settlement includes injunctive relief for a period of five years, requiring practice changes in the Company owned brokerage operations and that the Company recommend and encourage these same practice changes to its independently owned and operated franchise network. The injunctive relief, includes but is not limited to, reminding Company owned brokerages, franchisees and their respective agents that Anywhere has no rule requiring offers of compensation to buyer brokers; prohibiting Company owned brokerages (and recommending to franchisees) and agents from using technology (or manually) to sort listings by offers of compensation, unless requested by the client; eliminating any minimum client commission for Company owned brokerages; and refraining from adopting any requirement that Company owned brokerages, franchisees or their respective agents belong to National Association of Realtors ("NAR") or follow NAR’s Code of Ethics or MLS handbook. The practice changes are to take place no later than six months after the Anywhere Settlement receives final court approval and all appellate rights are exhausted. More recent settlements by NAR, other Realtor® associations or MLSs involve injunctive relief that, if approved and implemented, will impact the entire industry, including our owned brokerages and those of our franchisees. Specifically, NAR entered into a nationwide class action settlement (the "NAR Settlement"), which has been preliminarily approved by the court, under which it has agreed to certain practice changes and to pay $418 million. These practice changes include, but are not limited to, prohibiting offers of compensation to buyer brokers from being made on listings on an MLS, requiring Realtors® representing a buyer to enter into a written agreement with a buyer, setting forth the buyer broker’s fee and obligations before showing the buyer a property, and prohibiting Realtors® from representing their services as free, or collecting greater compensation than set forth in the written agreement with the buyer. The NAR Settlement allowed for participation by non-NAR MLSs, but a number of those MLSs have elected not to participate in the NAR Settlement, and as such, they will continue to operate on their own rules regarding broker compensation and will not be restricted by the constraints in the NAR Settlement. A hearing for final approval of the NAR settlement is scheduled for November 26, 2024. In addition, since late October 2023, more than thirty additional lawsuits with similar or related claims have been filed against various real estate brokerages, NAR, MLSs, and/or state and local Realtor Associations, about a third of which name Anywhere, its subsidiaries or franchisees (the “Copycat Litigation”). In those cases, plaintiffs have generally either agreed to dismiss or stay the actions against Anywhere, its subsidiaries or franchisees pending the conclusion of the appeals of the trial court's grant of final approval of the Anywhere Settlement. McFall v. Canadian Real Estate Association, et al., Federal Court, Canada, Court File No. T-119-24. In this putative class action, filed on January 18, 2024, plaintiff alleges that Coldwell Banker Canada, amongst other brokers, franchisors, Regional Real Estate Boards (“RREB”) and the Canadian Real Estate Board (“CREB”) conspired to fix the price of buyer brokerage services in violation of civil and criminal statutes. On March 14, 2024, the Court entered an order functionally staying the matter pending further order of the court. We believe the court will reexamine this order upon conclusion of the appeal in a previously filed matter involving similar allegations but different parties. Separately, a putative nationwide class action on behalf of home buyers (instead of sellers) captioned Batton, Bolton, Brace, Kim, James, Mullis, Bisbicos and Parsons v. The National Association of Realtors, Realogy Holdings Corp., Homeservices of America, Inc., BHH Affiliates, LLC, HSF Affiliates, LLC, The Long & Foster Companies, Inc., RE/MAX LLC, and Keller Williams Realty, Inc. (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division) was filed on January 25, 2021 ("Batton", formerly captioned as Leeder), in which the plaintiffs take issue with certain NAR policies, including those related to buyer-broker compensation at issue in the Moehrl and Burnett matters, but claim the alleged conspiracy has harmed buyers (instead of sellers), and seek a permanent injunction enjoining NAR from establishing in the future the same or similar rules, policies, or practices as those challenged in the action as well as an award of damages and/ or restitution, interest, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses. The only claims remaining outstanding are state law claims. The Company's motion to dismiss remains pending. The Company disputes the allegations against it in this case, believes it has substantial defenses to plaintiffs’ claims, and is vigorously defending this litigation. In addition to these substantial defenses, the final approval of the Anywhere Settlement limited the size of the Batton case because the settling plaintiffs are releasing claims of the type alleged in Batton. As noted above, the named plaintiffs in the Batton case have filed an appeal of the final approval of the Anywhere Settlement, objecting to the release of buy-side claims in that settlement. The Company believes that additional antitrust litigation and investigations related to other industry practices may be possible beyond what has already been filed. We believe, for example, the DOJ is continuing to focus on the manner in which broker commissions are communicated, negotiated and paid, including how MLSs and state associations are implementing the changes required by the NAR settlement and potentially broader restrictions or bans on offers of compensation. Their focus has also expanded to include the comingling rule, which is a non-mandatory rule that precludes the joint display of MLS and non-MLS listings. The DOJ may expand its focus to include certain other rules, such as the clear cooperation policy, which is a NAR-mandated policy that requires a listing broker to submit a listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants within a specified time of marketing a property to the public. Telephone Consumer Protection Act Litigation Bumpus, et al. v. Realogy Holdings Corp., et al. (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division). In this class action filed on June 11, 2019, plaintiffs allege that independent sales agents affiliated with Anywhere Advisors LLC violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) using dialers provided by Mojo Dialing Solutions, LLC and others. Plaintiffs seek relief on behalf of a National Do Not Call Registry class, an Internal Do Not Call class, and an Artificial or Prerecorded Message class. While the Court certified the classes in March 2022, the plaintiffs filed a motion in early 2023 seeking to narrow the classes, which the Company opposed, seeking to decertify the classes. The plaintiffs, in response to the Company's request to decertify the classes and the court's order, have provided a Declaration with a detailed explanation of the bases for their request to reduce the class sizes. Those and other pre-trail motions remain pending. The Company disputes the allegations against it in this case, believes it has substantial defenses to both plaintiffs’ liability claims and damage assertions, and is vigorously defending this action. Other Examples of other legal matters involving the Company may include but are not limited to: •antitrust and anti-competition claims; •TCPA claims; •claims alleging violations of RESPA, state consumer fraud statutes, federal consumer protection statutes or other state real estate law violations; •employment law claims, including claims that independent residential real estate sales agents engaged by our company owned brokerages or by affiliated franchisees—under certain state or federal laws—are potentially employees instead of independent contractors, and they or regulators therefore may bring claims against our Owned Brokerage Group for breach of contract, wage and hour classification claims, wrongful discharge, unemployment and workers' compensation and could seek benefits, back wages, overtime, indemnification, penalties related to classification practices and expense reimbursement available to employees or make similar claims against Franchise Group as an alleged joint employer of an affiliated franchisee’s independent sales agents; •other employment law matters, including other types of worker classification claims as well as wage and hour claims and retaliation claims; •claims regarding non-competition, non-solicitation and restrictive covenants together with claims of tortious interference and other improper recruiting conduct; •information privacy and security claims, including claims under new and emerging data privacy laws related to the protection of customer, employee or third-party information, claims related to the implementation of various consumer opt-out rights, and claims under biometric data laws such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act; •cyber-crime claims, including claims related to the diversion of homesale transaction closing funds; •vicarious or joint liability claims based upon the conduct of individuals or entities traditionally outside of our control, including franchisees and independent sales agents, under joint employer claims or other theories of actual or apparent agency; •claims by current or former franchisees that franchise agreements were breached, including improper terminations; •claims generally against the company owned brokerage operations for negligence, misrepresentation or breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the performance of real estate brokerage or other professional services as well as other brokerage claims associated with listing information and property history; •claims related to intellectual property or copyright law, including infringement actions alleging improper use of copyrighted photographs on websites or in marketing materials without consent of the copyright holder or claims challenging our trademarks; •claims concerning breach of obligations to make websites and other services accessible for consumers with disabilities; •claims against the title agent contending that the agent knew or should have known that a transaction was fraudulent or that the agent was negligent in addressing title defects or conducting the settlement; •claims related to disclosure or securities law violations as well as derivative suits; and •fraud, defalcation or misconduct claims. Other ordinary course legal proceedings that may arise from time to time include those related to commercial arrangements, indemnification (under contract or common law), franchising arrangements, the fiduciary duties of brokers, standard brokerage disputes like the failure to disclose accurate square footage or hidden defects in the property such as mold, claims under the False Claims Act (or similar state laws), consumer lending and debt collection law claims, state auction law, and violations of similar laws in countries where we operate around the world with respect to any of the foregoing. In addition, with the increasing requirements resulting from government laws and regulations concerning data breach notifications and data privacy and protection obligations, claims associated with these laws may become more common. While most litigation involves claims against the Company, from time to time the Company commences litigation, including litigation against former employees, franchisees and competitors when it alleges that such persons or entities have breached agreements or engaged in other wrongful conduct. * * * Cendant Corporate Liabilities and Guarantees to Cendant and Affiliates Anywhere Group (then Realogy Corporation) separated from Cendant on July 31, 2006 (the "Separation"), pursuant to a plan by Cendant (now known as Avis Budget Group, Inc.) to separate into four independent companies—one for each of Cendant's business units—real estate services (Anywhere Group, formerly referred to as Realogy Group), travel distribution services ("Travelport"), hospitality services, including timeshare resorts ("Wyndham Worldwide"), and vehicle rental ("Avis Budget Group"). Pursuant to the Separation and Distribution Agreement dated as of July 27, 2006 among Cendant, Anywhere Group, Wyndham Worldwide and Travelport (the "Separation and Distribution Agreement"), each of Anywhere Group, Wyndham Worldwide and Travelport have assumed certain contingent and other corporate liabilities (and related costs and expenses), which are primarily related to each of their respective businesses. In addition, Anywhere Group has assumed 62.5% and Wyndham Worldwide has assumed 37.5% of certain contingent and other corporate liabilities (and related costs and expenses) of Cendant. The due to former parent balance was $40 million at June 30, 2024 and $38 million at December 31, 2023, respectively. The due to former parent balance was comprised of the Company’s portion of the following: (i) Cendant’s remaining contingent tax liabilities, (ii) potential liabilities related to Cendant’s terminated or divested businesses, and (iii) potential liabilities related to the residual portion of accruals for Cendant operations. In December 2022, a hearing was held with the California Office of Tax Appeals ("OTA") on a Cendant legacy tax matter involving Avis Budget Group that related to a 1999 transaction. The case presented two issues: (i) whether the notices of proposed assessment issued by the California Franchise Tax Board were barred by the statute of limitations; and (ii) whether a transaction undertaken by Avis Budget Group in tax year 1999 constituted a tax-free reorganization under the Internal Revenue Code. In March 2023, the OTA decided in favor of the California Franchise Tax Board on both issues. As a result, the Company increased its accrual for this legacy tax matter in the first quarter of 2023 and as of June 30, 2024 the accrual is $40 million. On April 10, 2024, the Company's petition for rehearing was denied by the OTA, and the tax assessment is anticipated to become payable as early as the third quarter of 2024, even if judicial relief is sought. Tax Matters The Company is subject to income taxes in the United States and several foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining the worldwide provision for income taxes and recording related assets and liabilities. In the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. The Company is regularly under audit by tax authorities whereby the outcome of the audits is uncertain. The Company believes there is appropriate support for positions taken on its tax returns. The liabilities that have been recorded represent the best estimates of the probable loss on certain positions and are adequate for all open years based on an assessment of many factors including past experience and interpretations of tax law applied to the facts of each matter. However, the outcomes of tax audits are inherently uncertain. Escrow and Trust Deposits As a service to its customers, the Company administers escrow and trust deposits which represent undisbursed amounts received for the settlement of real estate transactions. Deposits at FDIC-insured institutions are insured up to $250,000. These escrow and trust deposits totaled approximately $844 million at June 30, 2024 and while these deposits are not assets of the Company (and, therefore, are excluded from the accompanying Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets), the Company remains contingently liable for the disposition of these deposits.

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