Compass, the nation's top home-selling brokerage, has filed a federal lawsuit against Zillow, the leading real estate website, accusing it of monopolizing digital home listings and violating antitrust laws. The lawsuit claims Zillow's recent policy—banning any home from its website if it's marketed elsewhere and not listed on Zillow within 24 hours—unfairly limits competition, per the New York Times. Zillow's database includes about 160 million properties and draws 227 million unique visitors monthly. Compass says the "Zillow ban" is a direct response to Compass' push for "Private Exclusives," a set of listings available only to Compass agents and clients. Compass maintains that such private marketing benefits sellers by allowing them to test pricing and marketing strategies.
Zillow's move echoes a 2019 National Association of Realtors rule requiring agents to post homes to a public MLS within 24 hours of advertising. This rule, after industry pushback, was relaxed in March to allow more flexibility for private listings, but Zillow and Redfin, the third-largest online real estate portal, have continued to enforce their bans. Compass alleges the ban is meant to protect Zillow's business model, which relies on selling agent leads tied to public listings and seeks an injunction to keep Zillow from enforcing it, per the AP. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin argues the lawsuit is about protecting consumer choice, telling the Times: "No one company should have the power to ban agents or listings simply because they don't follow that company's business model. That's not competition. It's coercion." (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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