Zillow Defends Listing Strategy, Redfin Relationship

Zillow took its turn in the hot seat as its fight with Compass over private listings unfolds.

The two companies are in New York court this week for a four-day preliminary injunction hearing over Compass’ request to block the so-called Zillow Ban. The proceedings mark the opening battle in a larger war over how residential listings are marketed, with both sides claiming they are protecting consumer and industry interests.

Compass sued Zillow in June, claiming the aggregator was leveraging its monopoly power with its listing policies.

After opening arguments and testimony from Compass CEO Robert Reffkin dominated the first day, testimony by Zillow executives on Wednesday was largely focused on the company’s strategy around private listings and its relationship with fellow aggregator Redfin.

CEO Jeremy Wacksman attempted to respond to accusations from Compass that he colluded with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman in publicizing similar listing policies within days of each other.

Compass has been trying to show that Zillow used its outsized market power to stifle competition in the home search space leading to negative outcomes for consumers, with Reffkin claiming Zillow has tried to “bully” his agents into submission.

Wacksman said Wednesday that while its listing standards are important to its business, they have only served to enhance transparency in the homeselling and buying process.

“It’s a much better experience for consumers and it’s better for Zillow,” said Wacksman.

The “carrot and stick” strategy

Lawyers for Compass appeared focused on establishing the origins, timeline and motivation behind Zillow’s listing standards.

“The bottom-line question is what did Zillow do and why did they do it,” Compass lawyer Kenneth Dintzer said during opening arguments on Tuesday.

Zillow began developing the concept for its listing standards in late 2024 or early 2025, Wacksman testified, after it became clear the National Association of Realtors was on track to loosen its Clear Cooperation Policy.

In December 2024, Zillow said in an internal document titled “CCP Considerations” that it wanted to be more “aggressive with hardline tactics to keep ALL listings in IDX, on Zillow.”

The document discussed using a “variety of carrots and sticks,” which became an internal company shorthand for the strategy that evolved into the listing policy Zillow announced on April 10. The document also stated a goal of “isolating Compass and any other bad actors.”

The next month, the company discussed the possibility of setting listing access standards during an on-site meeting in Seattle, according to testimony from chief industry officer Errol Samuelson.

Samuelson testified that Zillow had been actively putting out research reports for much of the year leading up to its access standards in the hopes of educating agents about the harm in keeping listings off-market, which did not seem to have an impact on the growing trend of what Zillow referred to as “private listing networks.”

Multiple executives testified about the urgent need Zillow saw for managing this trend.

On April 3, seven days before Zillow announced its policy, Zillow CFO Jeremy Hofman wrote to Wacksman that “these PLNs are going to start popping up everywhere, very quickly,” blaming Compass for the rise. That same day, Samuelson also messaged Wacksman, writing that “[a]lmost daily we see another PLN. We need to give people pause.”

By that time, Zillow’s listing standards policy had come together, and the executive team had to decide how to announce it. Wacksman proposed lining up a group of deals with other brokerages like eXp, Keller Williams and Anywhere and announcing those along with the “stick plans.”

Hofmann, though, pushed for a faster start. “We probably need to say publicly what the policy is going to be to send a chilling effect,” he wrote.

In court, the two sides differed over how to interpret this sequence of events. Compass lawyer Dintzer tried to paint the evolution of Zillow’s listing standards as a monopolist exerting its control on the industry and targeting a competitor, Compass, in the process.

A series of calls

Lawyers from Compass also spent a significant amount of time walking through a series of texts and calls between Wacksman and CEO Glenn Kelman.

Dintzer pointed to calls between Kelman and Wacksman on March 13 (before CCP was repealed), March 25 (the day CCP was repealed), April 9 (the day before Zillow announced its listing standards) and May 21 (the day after Zillow released details on its standards) as evidence of coordination between the two firms.

Wacksman denied that he and Kelman had agreed to release their standards in tandem, but texts cited in court included Wacksman telling colleagues that Redfin was “culturally aligned,” and that Kelman was feeling him out about “more aggressive countertactics.”

On April 9, Wacksman texted that Kelman was “THRILLED we are doing this — and said he will likely do the same.”

But Redfin was not the only firm Zillow communicated with on the listing standard, according to Hofmann.

Hofmann testified that he was part of preliminary negotiations with Compass in an effort to get the brokerage to adhere to Zillow’s standards, including offering a potential revenue lift between $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion. Zillow also offered Compass the opportunity to double-end more deals at the brokerage, according to Hofmann.

But those negotiations stalled early.

“We didn’t move very far on anything because after one meeting, it wasn’t interesting enough for them,” Hofmann said.