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Federal antitrust investigators say they’re abandoning a proposed settlement and the associated civil complaint against the National Association of Realtors. But it’s not letting the group off the hook.

The federal Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had filed the twin actions with the intent of launching “a broader investigation of NAR’s rules and conduct” and it didn’t want the settlement – reached in the final days of President Donald Trump’s administration – to tie its hands.

“The proposed settlement will not sufficiently protect the Antitrust Division’s ability to pursue future claims against NAR,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Powers said in a statement. “Real estate is central to the American economy and consumers pay billions of dollars in real estate commissions every year. We cannot be bound by a settlement that prevents our ability to protect competition in a market that profoundly affects Americans’ financial well-being.”

Powers is head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Federal officials said they had tried to reach a deal with NAR that allowed it to continue investigations, but talks were unsuccessful and the original settlement “resolved only some of the department’s concerns with NAR’s rules.”

NAR did not immediately issue a statement on the DOJ’s decision.

The DOJ’s initial complaint centered on NAR’s rules that, it said, “illegally restrained competition in residential real estate services,” and is not federal officials’ first antitrust action against NAR.

The original settlement would have forced NAR to modify or repeal four policies adopted by it and the many multiple listings services it controls:

• Prohibiting MLSs that are affiliated with NAR from disclosing to prospective buyers the commission that the buyer broker will earn.
• Allowing buyer brokers to misrepresent to buyers that a buyer broker’s services are free.
• Enabling buyer brokers to filter MLS listings based on the level of buyer broker commissions offered
• Limiting access to the lockboxes that provide licensed brokers with access to homes for sale to NAR-affiliated real estate brokers.

Massachusetts’ primary MLS, MLS PIN, is not affiliated with NAR.