Compass dismisses lawsuit against Zillow after 'Zillow ban' ends

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, March ‌18 (Reuters) - Compass, the ​largest ​U.S. residential real estate brokerage, on Wednesday dismissed its antitrust lawsuit accusing Zillow of illegally restricting home listings, after Zillow agreed to open its ‌platform to more sellers.

In its complaint filed last June, Compass had accused ⁠the largest U.S. online real estate portal of illegally refusing to list homes that brokers had marketed privately ‌for more than one business ‌day, and conspiring with Redfin to keep homes off that platform. Compass called Zillow's conduct the "Zillow ban."

On Tuesday, Zillow announced the planned April launch of Zillow Preview ​to bring pre-market home listings "into the open" by making them publicly visible on Zillow and Trulia, another portal it operates. Such listings now often appear online as "coming soon."

Compass ⁠said Zillow's decision gives homeowners greater freedom to decide when, where and how to market their homes, and brokers ​greater freedom to represent sellers without fear of retribution by Zillow.

“We are pleased to see that other brokerages are now recognizing the ​strong consumer demand for more options in how ‌they sell their homes," Compass Chief Executive Robert Reffkin said in a statement.

Compass, based in New York, filed its dismissal notice in ⁠Manhattan federal court. A spokesperson for Zillow said the Seattle-based company welcomed the dismissal, and that Compass' claims lacked merit.

Shares of Zillow rose after the dismissal, and were up 1% in late-afternoon ⁠trading.

Most people shopping for homes say they use the internet when searching.

Last month, a federal judge ​rejected Compass' request for an injunction requiring Zillow to list more homes, even after accepting Compass' claim that Zillow might command a 66% market share.

Zillow and Redfin, a unit of Rocket Companies, ‌separately face lawsuits by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and five states accusing them of conspiring to thwart competition for online rental ‌listings.

In its annual report last month, Zillow said it had about 173 million homes in ⁠its database, and averaged 235 million ‌unique visitors per month in ​2025. The latter number peaked at 259 million in July.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kirsten Donovan and ‌Aurora Ellis)

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