Zillow Sues Chicago MLS and Compass in Over Private Listings

Zillow is going on the offensive against Compass and Chicago’s local Multiple Listing Service.

The home search giant filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Midwest Real Estate Data and Compass International Holdings on Tuesday, alleging the companies conspired to harm Zillow and strong-arm it into displaying listings that follow Compass’ private marketing plan.

MRED recently moved to expand access to the MLS nationally, including to its relatively unique Private Listing Network, which allows agents to share properties to all MLS subscribers without putting them on public portals like Zillow. The expansion was backed by Compass International Holdings, which promised to syndicate its national inventory to MRED, including sending off-market listings to the private network.

In the lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois, Zillow alleges that MRED and Compass conspired over a series of moves to choke off Zillow’s access to its listings.

MRED demanded on May 6 that Zillow reinstate Compass private listings in states outside MRED’s territory, according to the lawsuit. MLS Grid, a technology provider whose board is chaired by MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen, threatened the same day to terminate Zillow’s data access, according to the complaint. Two days later, Zillow said Compass terminated all of its direct listing feed agreements with Zillow nationwide.

Zillow chief industry development officer Errol Samuelson said MLSs are supposed to be neutral marketplaces for agents to share listings. MRED’s partnership with Compass, and its embrace of influential brokerage’s business strategies, distorted that role, he said.

MRED “decided to work with the largest broker in their market, a broker who has seats on their board of managers, and skew the rules,” he said. “In a way to actually hurt consumers and hurt competition.”

Samuelson said Zillow is still displaying Compass’ public listings despite the data cutoff because they’re syndicated through MLS feeds, aside from some rental listings. Zillow also has direct brokerage agreements with many Chicago brokerages. If MRED cut off Zillow’s data access, it would still have the direct feeds, but would likely lose Compass’ inventory in Chicago, Samuelson said.

A Compass spokesperson said in a statement that Zillow was punishing Compass agents for “following their clients’ lawful instructions on how they want their homes marketed.”

“Compass believes homeowners should have the right to decide how to market their homes. The industry is evolving to give consumers more choice and we support that progress,” the spokesperson said.

Zillow is seeking an injunction blocking MRED from enforcing the rules at issue and from cutting off its data access, along with treble damages and attorney fees. The suit comes two months after Compass dropped a separate antitrust case against Zillow, which accused the company of antitrust violations. Compass dropped the lawsuit in March after Zillow loosened its listing standards.

The lawsuit is the culmination of months of animosity between Zillow and MRED over MRED’s Private Listing Network.

Zillow created new listing standards in April 2025 to prohibit agents from publicly marketing listings on channels outside Zillow, generally seen as a response to Compass’ three-phased marketing plan that begins with some listings beginning as private exclusives before going to the public market. That strategy is also used on MRED’s Private Listing Network, where agents often share properties to test pricing and market feedback before going public. In October, MRED changed its rules to prohibit Zillow from penalizing listings that start out on private channels like its Private Listing Network.

Under those new rules, MRED threatened to cut off Zillow’s access to its listing data if Zillow penalized agents for pre-marketing properties off its websites, Zillow said in the lawsuit. Zillow has not enforced its standards in the Chicago area since adopting them.

In the intervening months, MRED made “repeated and persistent threats” to cut off Zillow’s access to its data, the lawsuit said. In a January meeting between Jensen and a Zillow representative, Jensen said “she was not backing down when it came to cutting off Zillow’s Listing Feed,” according to the complaint.

“The representative knew her well enough to know she was not bluffing; and she was the ‘referee’ and would continue to revise MRED’s Rules ‘as needed’ to prevent Zillow from enforcing its Standards,” Zillow said in the complaint.

Zillow previously said listings marketed on the private network, which are later syndicated to public websites, violate its listing standards. Zillow has further argued that the private network distorts the market and entrenches segregation in Chicago.

Jensen has defended the network, arguing it provides options for sellers and gives flexibility to sensitive situations such as divorce or death, where a seller may not want their listing advertised broadly.

MRED did not immediately respond to a request for comment.