A federal judge on Friday ordered Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) to restore Zillow’s access to Chicagoland listings by the end of the day. This will end a two-day feed suspension that wiped out more than 60% off all active Chicago listings from the platform.
What Did the Judge Rule?
U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. granted Zillow’s preliminary injunction, requiring MRED to reinstate its IDX and VOW listing feeds to Zillow and Trulia.
In a statement, a Zillow spokesperson:
“Today’s ruling is an important first step for the Chicago home buyers, sellers and agents who have been harmed by a coordinated scheme between MRED and Compass to reduce transparency in the housing market. In the middle of a housing affordability crisis, powerful industry players colluded to hide listings, suppress competition and steer consumers toward a single dominant brokerage.”
“The court immediately recognized what was at stake, not just for Zillow, but for every person trying to find or sell a home across Illinois and beyond. We will continue to fight to ensure this anti-consumer conduct is not allowed to take root permanently.”
The ruling also included a notable restriction on Zillow going forward. The portal must add the nine MRED listings at the center of the legal feud, and it may not ban listings in ZIP codes nationwide where MRED has had listings active between April 2025 and April 2026.
A spokesperson for MRED stated:
“The central issue remains unchanged: Zillow wants the benefit of receiving MLS listing data while reserving the right to discriminate against certain lawful listings, sellers, and brokers whose marketing strategies it disfavors. The court’s ruling makes clear that Zillow cannot ignore their license obligations and MRED’s reasonable rules that benefit all participants in our cooperative marketplace and undermine the value of the MLS.”
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin took the judge’s ruling as a win for Compass, posting online: “Private Listing Network Wins, Zillow Bans Lose”
View this post on Instagram
Reffin’s caption reads:
“Today, a federal judge ruled that Zillow cannot ban our sellers’ listings. Every MRED listing Zillow banned has to go back up and Zillow cannot ban any MRED listings going forward inclusive of PLN listings.
“Zillow’s own attorney said the ruling gave them nothing.
“Why was Zillow fighting so hard to ban listings. Because they want to control how sellers and their agents market homes. The judge’s ruling will reverberate across the country and eliminate Zillow’s ability to ban listings. The judges decision preserves seller choice.”
What Triggered the Feed Cutoff?
MRED cut Zillow’s feed at midnight on May 21, 2026, after Zillow missed a deadline the MLS had set to fix what it called a “material breach” of its license agreement.
The breach included nine Compass listings in Florida, Georgia, and California that Zillow refused to display. Under Zillow’s Listing Access Standards, adopted in April 2025, any property first marketed privately is ineligible to appear on Zillow once it hits the open market.
MRED stated that enforcing that policy on listings within its feed violated Zillow’s license terms. The MLS gave Zillow until 11:59 p.m. Central on May 19 to fix the issue. Zillow did not comply, and MRED cut the feed.
What’s the Bigger Lawsuit About?
The feed dispute is part of a larger federal antitrust case Zillow filed on May 12, 2026, accusing MRED and Compass of conspiring to force Zillow to display Compass’s private listings nationwide.
In April 2026, MRED and Compass formed a formal partnership to expand MRED’s reach nationally. Compass agreed to subsidize membership fees for up to 100,000 of its agents and funnel its full listing inventory, including off-market properties, into MRED’s private network. In exchange, Zillow claims, MRED used its monopoly over Chicagoland listing data as leverage to coerce Zillow into reversing its transparency standards.
MRED has said its actions were about enforcing its license terms consistently.
While Chicagoland listings are back on Zillow and Trulia as of Friday, the underlying antitrust case is ongoing.
Stay tuned for more.
