CoStar Sues Zillow Over Alleged Copyright Infringement

CoStar is taking Zillow to court for alleged copyright infringement.

The real estate data platform, which owns and operates listing sites like Homes.com and Apartments.com, claimed that Zillow’s use of more than 46,000 CoStar Group images on its listing website amounts to “mass infringement.”

The complaint, a new twist in the residential platform wars that have roiled the industry, singles out Zillow’s alleged infringement for its rental listings, alleging that Zillow uses proprietary photographs from CoStar to populate unclaimed property pages and active listings, in addition to using the images as inputs for Zillow’s popular Zestimate feature.

CoStar also alleged that because of syndication among Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com, Zillow is also publishing unauthorized photographs on other multifamily rental listing websites.

CoStar CEO Andy Florance called Zillow’s alleged infringement “outrageous,” and claimed that “Zillow is profiting from decades of CoStar Group work and the billions of dollars we have invested.” He also threatened to sue Redfin and Realtor.com if they do not “immediately remove our images.”

CoStar is seeking injunctive relief as well as damages.

A spokesperson for Zillow did not respond to a request for comment.

CoStar, which claims to own the industry’s largest real estate image library, has fought similar cases before.

Most recently, in June, a federal judge found that rival commercial real estate platform CREXi deliberately copied and cropped watermarked photographs from CoStar for its platform using offshore agents. That case is moving to trial to determine damages.

In 2019, a monitor appointed by the Federal Trade Commission found that Xceligent, a real estate listing platform, had improperly derived nearly 40,000 photographs from CoStar, and awarded $500 million in damages, according to the complaint.

While the new complaint focuses on the multifamily market, CoStar CEO Andy Florance has been publicly critical of Zillow, the largest residential listing platform in the country, over its latest policy requiring homes to be uploaded to its website within 24 hours of public marketing.

In a July 16 statement published to LinkedIn, Florance claimed that despite the language of the policy, homes submitted only to the MLS have received violations from Zillow, while homes submitted only to Zillow have not been dinged.

“While Zillow preaches they are protecting the industry by requiring submission of listings to the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing, in fact their new rule does not apply to listings directly submitted to Zillow, and Zillow alone,” he wrote.

In June, Compass sued Zillow, alleging that the listing site engaged in anticompetitive behavior when it announced its new listing policy.

This is a developing story.