Zillow loses thousands of listings in fight over “hidden” homes
Summary
Zillow lost access to thousands of Chicago-area home listings after filing an antitrust lawsuit. Zillow claims that Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and the real estate brokerage Compass are hiding homes in a private network, limiting what buyers can see and harming competition.Key Facts
- Zillow’s Chicago listings dropped from about 5,000 to 1,700 after losing access to MRED’s data.
- Zillow sued MRED and Compass, accusing them of working together to hide listings in a “Private Listing Network” (PLN).
- Zillow says Compass uses the hidden listings to attract buyers exclusively to its agents, potentially making more profit by controlling deals.
- MRED says Zillow broke contract rules by blocking certain listings, causing Zillow to lose access to 43,000 listings.
- MRED calls Zillow’s complaint an issue that should be handled by arbitration, not court.
- Compass argues the lawsuit is about marketing choices and says restricting listing visibility protects consumer choice.
- Zillow wants a court order to stop the alleged hiding of listings and promote transparency in the housing market.
- Other platforms like Redfin and Realtor.com currently have more listings available in Chicago than Zillow does.
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