Compass is looking for some answers.
The residential brokerage issued subpoenas to both eXp Realty and Redfin in a new court filing on Saturday as part of its lawsuit against Zillow.
The subpoenas came as Compass and Zillow duke it out in court over Zillow’s right to ban listings that are publicly marketed for a certain period of time without being uploaded to Zillow.
As part of its original complaint, Compass alleged that eXp Realty and Redfin colluded with Zillow in the hopes that “slamming the door on Compass’s [three-phased marketing] approach would arrest the wave of support and similar strategies that had started to spread.”
Compass’ marketing strategy entails first marketing listings without publishing them on the MLS or Zillow. Last month, Compass submitted a request for a preliminary injunction to halt Zillow’s listing policy.
Compass is now seeking all communications related to Zillow’s listing policy and Compass’ or others’ pre-MLS marketing strategies. It’s also seeking communications related to Redfin’s rental partnership with Zillow and eXp’s listings feed partnership with Zillow.
The subpoenas came as part of a joint letter from Zillow and Compass updating the judge on the status of discovery negotiations related to Compass’ requested preliminary injunction. The letter details the pieces of information the two sides are requesting from each other and on what they disagree about.
The two companies will likely have to exchange significant amounts of information about their internal operations, including agent business plans and agent training, marketing and recruiting materials related to Compass’ three-phased marketing strategy and Zillow’s data sets on consumer behavior on its website.
Compass is also seeking a list of all communications between Zillow and Redfin and Zillow and eXp beginning on Aug. 1, 2024.
Zillow pushed back on Compass’ requests for board presentation materials, depositions and expert witness discovery.
The two sides submitted a set of proposed schedules, which puts the earliest date for a hearing on Compass’ request for a preliminary injunction at some point in late September.
In its original complaint and motion, Compass claimed that Zillow’s listing policy “destroys” the first two phases of its three-phase marketing plan.
Last week, Zillow responded to Compass’ request for a preliminary injunction, claiming that the brokerage is trying to force “Zillow to share the benefits of its audience while at the same time withholding from Zillow and its customers the benefits of the latest listings.”
Zillow also claimed that it “has no agreement with Redfin regarding Compass’s listings” and its vertical integration with eXp makes no mention of how Compass’ listings are displayed.
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