The National Association of Realtors controls a huge percentage of real estate transactions, and works to make sure it doesn't drop, to the point where there are multiple open anti-trust lawsuits. For example:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-anti...Basically, if you don't play the Realtor game and agree to pay those commissions, it's difficult to participate in the market at large.