The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) claims around 230 members—MLSs ranging in size from a couple hundred to over 100,000 members. As many in real estate are quick to point out, each serves a unique geography, and often has different structures, resources and goals—both a unique boon and a huge pitfall in the face…
Three separate federal lawsuits involving Compass and seven different MLSs are now making their way through the (often slow-moving) civil litigation process, marking a clear new level of conflict between incumbents defending long-running industry practices and deep-pocketed disruptors with new priorities. The confrontation comes after more than a year of fast-escalating tensions, in which the…
Around 16 months after it was filed, Compass announced today that it has reached an agreement to resolve its antitrust lawsuit against Washington-based Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), ending what had been a high-stakes and sharply contested dispute that cut to the heart of the larger private listing debate. In a statement, Compass CEO Robert…
Minutes before a high-stakes trial was about to begin, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Zillow has agreed to “unwind” its $100 million partnership with Redfin in the rental listing market, after it accused Zillow of an unlawful buy-out to decrease competition for rental listings. Redfin will be required to re-start its rental business…
Editor’s note: after this story published, Zillow and Redfin struck an agreement with the FTC to avoid trial, amending or unwinding significant portions of their partnership. Read the full story here. At 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, August 24, portal rivals Zillow and Redfin will face a judge in Virginia federal court, and defend…
Antitrust has been a loaded topic in real estate since at least the commission lawsuits of the 2020s that alleged many foundational rules and practices in real estate violated antitrust laws, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) launching its own parallel inquiry. Now, federal agencies are looking to review and revise existing antitrust guidelines, the…
Above, left to right: Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman, MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen and Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) has announced that it will suspend property listing data feeds to Zillow Group websites, including Zillow.com and Trulia.com, unless Zillow cures its violation of its license agreements and MRED’s rules by…
A federal judge handed the National Association of Realtors (NAR) a major legal win today, throwing out a lawsuit by two brokers and an agent in Michigan, who had claimed that rules restricting MLS access violated federal and state antitrust laws. Douglas Hardy, Glenn Champion and Dylan Trent filed the lawsuit all the way back…
In a mostly technical legal briefing filed last week in Virginia federal court, rivals Zillow and Redfin jointly pushed back against a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and five states’ attorneys general that alleges the two companies violated federal antitrust law when they struck a rental “syndication” agreement late last year, arguing…