Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. After defeat in Zillow injunction, Compass wants judge to distinguish MLS power In two major legal battles over private listings, Compass is seemingly seeking to draw a distinction between listing service market power…
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…
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…
In a class-action lawsuit focused on Zillow’s mortgage referral and fee structures, plaintiffs just added a bevy of new accusations, citing a handful of “confidential witnesses”—current and former loan officers and agents who worked with the company—who claim Zillow sought to hide the fact it was funneling customers to its mortgage business. Alleging violations of…
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…
In a relatively short time, the power dynamics in residential real estate have shifted dramatically. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) sits alongside portal giant Zillow on one side, and on the other is New York-based venture capital-backed Compass, a new behemoth that has consolidated a huge brokerage empire and appears ready to use its…
Zillow customers who had a Matterport 3D home tour on a listing woke up today to find the virtual tour option removed, with Zillow claiming that the CoStar-owned company changed its terms of service to restrict usage of Matterport-created content on “any third-party platform.” CoStar also chose not to renew its API agreement with Zillow,…
In a hearing today for the copyright lawsuit filed by CoStar against Zillow, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York ordered both parties to submit more detailed arguments regarding the proper venue for the lawsuit, with CoStar previewing how it will allege Zillow is responsible for what the company claimed “may be…
Compass’s acquisition of Anywhere could end up having a major impact on its lawsuit against Zillow, as the portal giant is seeking to determine if Compass contradicted its assertions about the value of private listings through the proposed mega-merger. A joint letter filed by the two companies to U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in…