After the $1.8 billion fine, time is running out for the 6% real estate commission.

Washington, D.C., CNN - Using a travel agent to buy a plane ticket or a broker to trade stocks seems like long outdated practices. Yet every day, people across America are hiring an agent toreal estateto help them sellhouse. It is one of the few industries that has been able to largely avoid the disruption that has helped consumers lower costs in the Internet age. That's due in large part to the influence of the National Association of Realtors, the largest professional organization in America and a significant lobbying group for the real estate industry. But the verdict in the trialMissourion Tuesday, which found NAR and two brokerage firms, Homeservices of America and Keller Williams Realty, guilty of $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to keep commissions artificially high, could be the beginning of the end of the way buying and selling is donehouses. Two other firms originally named in the lawsuits filed by the homeowners - Re/Max and Anywhere Real estate, formerly known as Realogy, which is the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty and Corcoran - have amicably settled for a combined $140 million. As part of the agreement, they announced their intention to make changes to their operations, including eliminating mandatory agent membership in NAR. While state governments license real estate agents, NAR has an extensive code of ethics that members are expected to follow. NAR and brokerage firms are promising to appeal the verdict, which means real estate commissions won't disappear immediately. NAR has been battling U.S. antitrust authorities and litigation over anticompetitive practices for years, and this verdict is the association's biggest defeat.

The verdict is just part of one of several lawsuits currently filed against NAR, which is also under scrutiny by the Justice Dept.U.S.. NAR has already faced a rough year in the past year, aside from the verdict and the troubled housing market. In August, NAR's president, a sales agent named Kenny Purcell, resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. Last month, online real estate company Redfin left the association. On the commissions, NAR said it will appeal the verdict and that the issue won't be resolved for years to come. “This is far from over,” said Darryl Frost, a spokesman for Keller Williams.

Plaintiffs' primary argument is that NAR forces home sellers to pay an inflated commission, which is then split between their agent and the buyer's agent. The home sellers argue that sharing commissions as a condition for access to the Multiple Listing Service is unfair and supports artificially high commissions.

Important points:

• NAR and the other defendants argued in court that their commissions are always negotiable.
• The jury decided quickly, seeing that the industry had limited competition to uniform 5%-6% commissions.
• Human rights activists welcomed the verdict and hope for changes in the structure of commissions in the industry.

What commissions mean for buyers and sellers:

According to the agents, we should not expect a significant change in the near future with respect to the setting of commissions. The long-term impact of the verdict may be that the separation of buyer's agent and seller's agent commissions will eventually be decoupled. Analysts at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a report issued prior to the verdict that the NAR litigation and related government actions will likely transform the commission structure of the residential brokerage industry by eliminating the buyer broker commission rule and, ultimately, the practice of setting and paying commissions to agents.

“Nothing is going to change anytime soon,” said Jen Davis, an agent with Keller Williams of Holt Homes Group, in Springfield, Missouri. “Commissions have always been negotiable. It's going to stay that way.”