Private listings are at the center of one of the most headline-grabbing litigations in real estate right now. Compass has sued Zillow over its new “listing access standards” program, which removes listings not listed on MLSs within one business day of being publicly marketed from Zillow’s platform. While the Zillow and Compass litigation unfolds in…
The industry-shaking deal by Compass to acquire Anywhere officially closed today, creating a $10 billion brokerage behemoth that is likely to shift the power balance in real estate both short- and long-term, and shifts ongoing debates around listing transparency significantly more weighty. In a regulatory filing today, Compass said that the merger—first announced back in…
The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. Four days of testimony set battle lines in Zillow-Compass showdown With top executives, brokers and a mob of journalists packing a high-rise federal courtroom in Manhattan last week, the public got its first glimpse of…
With Compass and Zillow locked into a high-stakes fight over listing restrictions and market power, company executives testified in federal court for the third day yesterday as Compass leadership addressed the specifics of its private listing-focused strategy, from alleged harm to its business from the Zillow rules, to how it communicated with agents. The trial—officially…
NEW YORK CITY–As the afternoon session of the Compass-Zillow preliminary injunction hearing got underway in courtroom 14C at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in downtown Manhattan on Nov. 18, with Judge Jeannette Vargas presiding, the intensity from the morning session continued with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin on the stand. Throughout the day, attorney Bonnie…
NEW YORK CITY—Facing off in what seems more and more like a battle for the future of real estate, Zillow and Compass kicked off a four-day evidentiary trial in the Southern District of New York this morning in their high-stakes dispute over restrictions around private listings, with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin taking the stand to…
In a legal filing Nov. 12 in New York’s U.S. District Court ahead of a high-stakes hearing starting Nov. 18 to address Compass’s preliminary injunction motion, Zillow defended its new rules around private listings amid its ongoing court battle with Compass. The standards, which took effect in June, prohibit listings on Zillow that are publicly…
Above, Art Carter The following is an open letter from Art Carter, CEO of California Regional MLS (CRMLS) to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin regarding Reffkin’s recent statement on social media claiming CRMLS’s end user license agreement forces agents to surrender ownership of content, which RISMedia covered Oct. 14. Okay, Mr. Reffkin, you got some people’s…
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has been unafraid to challenge other industry figures. Reffkin has been an outspoken critic of the National Association of Realtors®’ (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy, and Compass is currently engaged in litigation with Zillow over the latter’s new listing rules. Reffkin has previously claimed that Zillow, NAR and MLSs “exploit” agents in…
Above: Leo Pareja and Todd Denman Teams have a lot of reasons to change their affiliation. They also have a lot of reasons not to. As 2025 increasingly becomes the year of consolidation, big companies are scrambling to recruit high-producing teams amid a general shuffle of power and priorities across the real estate landscape—moves that…
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