On August 29, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (DC AG) released four assurances of voluntary compliance against several real estate companies for allegedly using “illegal kickback schemes” in the title insurance market. The DC AG stated in each assurance that it sought injunctive relief, consumer restitution, civil penalties, costs and attorneys’ fees for violations of DC’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA). Although only recently published, two of the settlements were executed in 2023.

In the first assurance, the DC AG alleged that the company — which provided title insurance, escrow, and closing services to DC consumers — created subsidiary agents to receive profits from their own referral business. Noting that DC law prohibits “[a] title insurer or other person” from “giv[ing] or receiv[ing]… any consideration for the referral of title insurance business or escrow… provided by a title insurer,” the DC AG found that the company’s business practices constituted unfair and deceptive trade practices under the CPPA and imposed a $1.9 million civil penalty on the company. Regarding the second assurance, the DC AG took action against a provider of title insurance and settlement services whose employees’ were compensated for the referral of title insurance business in violation of DC law. The DC AG claimed the same violations and an injunction and fined the company $1 million. In the third and fourth assurances, the companies provided title insurance services to DC consumers by establishing joint ventures with local real estate agents, which the DC AG found the companies created to refer title insurance business and share the profits. The companies were respectively fined $325,000 and $65,000 to resolve the claims.