Last week, on July 1-2, a federal judge heard both sides of the Zillow vs MRED and Compass case.
The two-day preliminary injunction hearing will decide whether Zillow keeps its unrestricted access to MRED’s Chicagoland listings. Here’s a quick update on the hearing and what comes next.
What Happened in the Hearing?
To recap, on May 12, 2026, Zillow filed a lawsuit alleging MRED and Compass colluded to hide listings. About a week later, MRED cut Zillow’s data feed, pulling roughly 43,000 Chicagoland listings from Zillow’s site.
This week’s hearing was the first real test of who can make the stronger case.
On May 22, a judge temporarily ordered MRED to restore the feed while restricting Zillow’s new listing access standards in certain ZIP codes.
Here’s how each party framed the dispute in the July 1-2 hearing:
- Zillow: this is a boycott causing real harm to Zillow and consumers
- MRED: this is neutral rule enforcement, applied evenly, rooted in a 2008 DOJ and NAR settlement
- Compass: Zillow is free riding on listings it didn’t create and manufactured its own harm
Errol Samuelson, Zillow’s Chief Industry Development Officer, testified that a listing gets close to 180 page views on day one, dropping to around 60 by day five.
Economist and president of NERA, Dr. Lawrence Wu, was an expert witness for Zillow. He testified private listings sell for less, but economist and expert witness for Compass, Dr. Debra Aron, challenged his methodology and produced findings showing the opposite.
Compass also revealed Zillow had offered it a deal worth $1.3 to $1.6 billion a year for exclusive marketing, an offer Robert Reffkin said he turned down (something he first shared online in November 2025). Compass’s attorney used this to cast doubt on Zillow’s stated commitment to transparency.
He also pointed out that all but eight of the roughly 1,500 listings banned under Zillow’s standards belonged to Compass.
The legal question at the center of it all is whether MRED’s “objective criteria” rule, updated in October 2025, legitimately applies to Zillow’s listing standards or whether it was changed specifically to target Zillow.
What’s Next?
Judge Tharp is expected to decide within weeks whether to grant the injunction.
Granting it would keep Zillow’s feed access in place. A denial would hand MRED leverage heading into the trial.
As of June 30, MRED has a pending motion to move the case out of court and into arbitration. Zillow has until July 6 to file its response.
MLSs across the country are watching this case before deciding whether to build their own private listing networks.
The outcome could shape how listings get marketed and distributed well beyond Chicago
Stay tuned for more updates.
