Above, left to right: Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman, MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen and Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin
Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) has announced that it will suspend property listing data feeds to Zillow Group websites, including Zillow.com and Trulia.com, unless Zillow cures its violation of its license agreements and MRED’s rules by May 19 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. MRED said in a statement it reserves the right to terminate Zillow’s license based on Zillow’s alleged “material breach” of its license agreements by “suppressing display of listings” on its websites.
“The rules of this MLS exist to protect every participating broker and every consumer who relies on a complete and accurate picture of the market,” said Rebecca Jensen, president and CEO of MRED. “Those rules apply equally to every participant, regardless of the size of their audience or the reach of their platform. MRED enforces its rules consistently and fairly, and hopes that Zillow returns to operating consistent with its longstanding agreements with MRED.”
MRED set a deadline of May 19 at 11:59 p.m. CT for cutting off the feed, if Zillow doesn’t comply with rules around filtering properties, which Compass has pushed for.
At the same time, though, Zillow has filed an emergency request in federal court to prevent MRED from “taking any steps to terminate Zillow’s access to MRED Listing Feeds,” after it previously sued both MRED and Compass for what it calls an “illegal conspiracy” to boycott Zillow, providing evidence that Compass is pushing other MLSs to cut off Zillow’s listing feeds in the near future.
“If MRED follows through, Chicago sellers will lose access to millions of buyers, Chicago buyers can no longer see all available homes, and thousands of independent agents will lose leads. All to protect one megabrokerage’s hidden listing scheme in markets MRED has never served,” a Zillow spokesperson told RISMedia.
The rapid escalation in what is essentially a proxy battle between the nation’s largest brokerage and the most visited portal comes as the industry grapples with how, where and when listings are displayed. Late last year, Zillow spent months negotiating with MRED over its “listing access standards”—rules governing listings that can appear on its platform—while seemingly Compass worked behind the scenes to build a relationship with the MLS, which has long offered its own private listing network.
Notably, Zillow had delayed implementing its rules in the Chicago area while it negotiated with MRED. But after MRED and Compass partnered to bring MRED’s platform nationwide (and tweak some of the MLS’s rules), Zillow seemingly banned a handful of Compass listings that were added to MRED from other parts of the country, where Zillow already implemented its listing access standards.
Compass has struck similar agreements with other MLSs around the country, including Bright MLS, the nation’s largest.
According to an email exchange between Zillow and Compass attorneys earlier this week that Zillow filed in court, MRED said it “will agree not to terminate Zillow’s access to any IDX or VOW feeds while Zillow’s lawsuit is pending on the condition that Zillow displays all MRED listings in a manner consistent with Zillow’s license and MRED’s rules.”
According to MRED, Zillow notified MRED two weeks ago of its intention to exclude display of certain listings submitted by MRED participating brokers based on the lawful marketing practices of those brokers. MRED notified Zillow that those exclusions violated its license agreements and asked Zillow to cure those violations, the MLS said.
MRED also notified Zillow that its compliance window closes on May 19 at 11:59 p.m. MRED will not suspend Zillow’s data feed if it brings its websites into compliance. If Zillow’s IDX and VOW data feeds are interrupted, MRED claims its listings will continue to be published on “thousands of compliant consumer-facing websites.”
In a statement, a Compass spokesperson said that the company “commend(s) MRED for enforcing policies that protect both consumer choice and the fiduciary obligations agents owe their clients.”
“Buyers in Chicago should not be deprived of access to listings because a platform disagrees with how a homeowner chooses to market their property,” the spokesperson added.
Zillow also filed an email exchange between Compass Head of Industry Relations Caitlin McCrory and Daniel Jones, CEO of Hive MLS in North Carolina, on May 11.
In it, McCrory wrote that “any MLS that successfully (emphasis original) enforces” the rules Compass has pushed for “will have our commitment that we Compass International Holdings (sic) will support those MLSs.”
Specifically, McCrory said Compass would promise to not have add/edit for listings into any third-party website other than that MLS in the region, and not send any Compass listings to third-party sites without also sending them to the MLS.
“We believe in the MLS and look forward to standing with you to protect it. The above offer will not be given to MLSs that don’t successfully enforce” the MLS rule, McCrory wrote.
The showdown
The fight over listings, which seemingly has expanded to include nearly every big brokerage, MLS and portal, started and still centers on Compass and Zillow. A few months after Zillow announced the “listing access standards,” Compass sued Zillow, claiming the rules were an illegal boycott and alleging a conspiracy with Redfin. That lawsuit was later dropped after Zillow updated its standards to be less restrictive (though the portal continues to claim the rules have the same “core”).
James Dwiggins, President at NextHome which recently was acquired by eXp, wrote this morning on LinkedIn that his company will ensure its Chicago listings will appear on Zillow even if MRED shuts off the feed.
“(W)e will continue to do what’s necessary for our agents and the consumers we represent including creating direct feeds that bypass the MLS entirely. We are here to do what’s right for consumers which is complete transparency—not politics,” Dwiggins wrote.
According to a source close to the dispute who spoke to RISMedia, Zillow recently chose to stop displaying some of MRED’s listings, prompting MRED to insist that Zillow return to compliance or face consequences under standard MLS enforcement processes. The source said MRED has repeatedly warned Zillow for about a year that a particular policy violates the license and that it cannot look the other way or treat Zillow as a special case, emphasizing equal treatment of all participants.
In its filing asking for a court to stop MRED, Zillow wrote that the company will suffer “irreparable harm,” arguing there is “direct evidence” of an anti-competitive conspiracy and claiming that MRED misled the company—and its brokers—about the situation.
“MRED twice misleadingly cautioned members about sending Zillow direct feeds, falsely claiming it did not know why Zillow was concerned about a possible disruption to its MRED Listing Feeds access,” Zillow wrote.
The company also filed an email exchange from an Illinois Compass broker on May 11, who said he received a “disturbing call” from Compass executive Fran Broude, warning that MRED “is going to be banning Zillow from getting any listing feeds.”
“I hear there are also 3 other states that will be following suit if MRED enforces this ban,” the broker wrote.
In its statement to RISMedia, Zillow noted that Broude is an MRED board member.
According to MRED, Zillow has acknowledged being out of compliance in emails to MRED customers and is weaponizing the IDX feed by selectively withholding display of certain brokers’ listings—specifically referencing Compass and listings outside Chicago—thereby favoring some brokers over others.
Operationally, MRED describes a standard process: when a website is found out of compliance, notice is given and a defined period is allowed for correction, recognizing that technical issues can occur; in this case, Zillow has been notified, understands it is out of compliance, and is choosing not to remedy the violations by the specified “drop dead” date.
Zillow, though, is claiming the conflict is over business practices, calling MRED a “monopoly” and arguing the MLS (and Compass) are threatened by its own pre-market offerings.
In a court filing and sworn statement, Zillow VP of Industry Affairs Matt Hendricks claimed that he spoke to MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen at a conference back in January. According to Hendricks, Jensen told him that MRED “would continue to change its rules as needed to prevent Zillow from implementing its Standards regardless of how Zillow adapted them.”
The source who spoke to RISMedia compared the dispute in the context of earlier industry litigation over selective opt-out, where large brokers attempted to exclude competitors’ listings from online display, leading to DOJ involvement and rules requiring any display limits to be based on objective criteria (such as property type or price segment) rather than brokerage identity.
MRED contends that Zillow’s current approach mirrors those discredited practices by conditioning display on the brokerage handling the listing and potentially opening the door to future restrictions unrelated to the characteristics of the home itself.
“The choice to comply with MRED’s reasonable IDX and VOW rules—and avoid feed interruption—is Zillow’s to make. MRED hopes that Zillow makes the right choice, for the sake of all of MRED’s brokers, agents, sellers, buyers and the rest of the MLS marketplace that relies on an orderly system of cooperation,” MRED’s release said.
In its statement, Zillow called the deadline a “threat designed to force Zillow’s hand before a federal court can stop (MRED).”
“MRED is using its monopoly over Chicago as a weapon to control how Zillow handles listings in places like California and Florida—markets thousands of miles outside Chicago that MRED has never operated in—all to give the largest brokerage in the country a leg up,” the spokesperson said.
If the IDX and VOW data feed suspension is necessary, that action will not affect listings populated in ShowingTime or dotLoop, MRED said.
Editor’s note: this story was updated with information from new Zillow court filings, statements from a Compass spokesperson and additional information throughout at 10:20 a.m. eastern time on May 19.
Editor’s note: this story was updated with comments from James Dwiggins at 10:52 a.m. eastern time on May 19.
