Latest Anti-Yacht Broker Lawsuit Casts a Wider Net
In Fourth Case, Melanie Neale's 'Boutique Brokerage' Is a Defendant Alongside the Big Boys
Sunshine Cruising Yachts describes itself as a “boutique yacht brokerage”…Melanie Neale belongs to what has been called a “cruising dynasty.”
Just as fast as a federal court could consolidate three lawsuits challenging the American way of selling boats, a fourth case was filed, and it has a couple distinguishing features.
The suit was filed on behalf of Florida woman Tricia Defosey, purporting to represent anyone who has “used a yacht MLS to sell a yacht and paid a commission to a brokerage defendant” since March 26, 2020. Given that the defendants include 13 Florida brokerages—most of them giants—thousands of sellers are potential co-plaintiffs.
Like the first three lawsuits, this one mimics arguments from the recent, successful class-action litigation that upended the commission system for real-estate transactions in the U.S. You could say that this latest, Defosey vs. Boats Group, is just copy of a copy, repeating the same conclusion—that a monopoly exists, and it is cheating sellers. One paragraph from the complaint:
Defendants have for years used their broker rules1 to cause yacht sellers to pay inflated commissions—commonly 10 percent of the sale price. In addition, the Defendants use the broker rules to force sellers to pay a portion of the commission paid to the buyer-broker, someone who provided no service to the sellers.
One difference in this case is that the lead defendant is Boats Group, which operates the YachtWorld multiple-listing service (and which was discussed in a recent Loose Cannon story). The other difference is the inclusion of three new defendants, including Sunshine Cruising Yachts of St. Augustine, a brokerage operated by Melanie Sunshine Neale.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to LOOSE CANNON to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.