CoStar amicus brief denied in Zillow MRED Compass case

CoStar’s attempt to enter the ongoing legal battle among Zillow, Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Compass International Holdings has been denied. 

In a ruling on Tuesday, Illinois-based federal judge John Tharp denied CoStar’s motion to file an amicus curiae brief. No reason for the judge’s denial was given. 

“We sought to call attention to Zillow’s obvious hypocrisy: Zillow is asking the Court to guarantee its access to MLS listing data while simultaneously creating its own pre-market listing channel and seeking to restrict others,” Gene Boxer, CoStar’s general counsel, said in a statement. “That contradiction matters to the entire residential real estate industry. Zillow cannot claim to be defending openness and transparency while building a system that advantages Zillow, withholds inventory from competing platforms and undermines the very principles it invokes in court.”

Boxer said regardless of if the court considered the brief, CoStar believes it is “important for brokers, agents, MLSs, consumers and regulators to understand what Zillow is really asking for: open access for itself, but different rules for everyone else.”

“Zillow has already had plenty of time to refute the facts in our brief, but it hasn’t, because it can’t,” Boxer added. “We expect that the other parties to the case will continue to highlight our arguments as additional reasons why Zillow should lose. We are pleased to stand with the industry to expose Zillow’s wrongdoing.”

The legal history

Last Wednesday, CoStar, the parent company of residential real estate listing portal Homes.com, filed an amicus brief in opposition to Zillow’s motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to prevent MRED from suspending its listing feed. A hearing on this motion is scheduled for early July. 

In the filing, CoStar claimed that Zillow’s motion is part of its “scheme to expand its ecosystem and replace the non-profit MLS system.” 

“It seeks to fragment the market in its favor, locking out rivals like Homes.com, while barring others’ pre-market listings and maintaining broad access to MLS feeds, until it no longer needs them,” the brief stated.

The firm also claimed that its Homes.com portal had been “directly harmed” by Zillow’s exclusive pre-market listing practices, which it launched in mid-March with Zillow Preview, a new offering providing agents and their sellers with the option to publicly pre-market their listings before the properties transition to an active listing status.

In the brief, CoStar called the product “hypocritical,” claiming that Zillow Preview is the same thing as the defendants’ private listing networks, stating in the filing that the losing portal “trumpeted the very thing it had said was anathema when offered by a rival.”

Zillow’s preliminary injunction motion is part of its antitrust battle with MRED and Compass. The lawsuit, filed in mid-May claims that the Chicagoland MLS and the nation’s largest brokerage company conspired to withhold listing data and pressure Zillow to carry private “hidden” listings nationwide.

After suspending Zillow’s listing data feed in May, MRED is under a temporary restraining order requiring it to continue supplying Zillow with a listing feed, while Zillow is prevented from banning any MRED listings from its site. 

Zillow did not immediately return HousingWire’s request for comment on the ruling.