Compass And Zillow Face Off In Court As New Listing Rule Sparks Industry Debate

Wednesday marks day two of Compass’s preliminary injunction hearing in its antitrust lawsuit against Zillow. 

The hearing, which is being held in New York City under the auspices of U.S. District Court Judge Jeanette Vargas, will be used to decide Compass’s motion seeking to block the enforcement of Zillow’s listing access standards policy.

The policy, which went into effect on June 30, bans listings from its site that have been publicly marketed for more than one business day prior to the listing being available for display on Zillow. Compass filed its lawsuit against Zillow in mid-June, just prior to the enforcement deadline, claiming that the policy stifles competition and causes irreparable harm to Compass. 

Kicking off with opening arguments

The four-day hearing kicked off on Tuesday with opening arguments from both sides, as well as testimony from Compass CEO Robert Reffkin, Kerry Carr, the leader of the Compass brokered Kerry Carr Team, and Zillow’s chief industry development officer Errol Samuelson. 

Reffkin’s testimony

Reffkin spent his time on the stand explaining Compass’s three-phased marketing strategy and how his firm planned to expand the advertisement of this strategy, as well as its private listing network after the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced clarifications about its Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) in late-March.

However, Reffkin claimed that this expansion of the three-phased marketing strategy and private listings was scrapped after Zillow announced its policy in early-April. According to Reffkin, Zillow’s announcement chilled the adoption of Compass’s strategy and stifled his firm’s growth and innovation. 

“If Compass is able to say that we have listings that Zillow doesn’t have, then people would search Compass. It’s a very simple thing. … that’s why the Zillow ban came into effect eight days later,” Reffkin said. “The Zillow listing access standards have nearly eliminated our ability to compete on inventory.” 

Reffkin also took aim at the MLSs and NAR, claiming that they are the “real monopoly,” and that portals like Zillow, as well as the MLSs are free riders, profiting off of the hard work of the brokers who submit listings. 

“We give more listings to Zillow in the majority of our major markets than almost any other major brokerage firm. Zillow gives no listings to us, because they don’t have agents. They don’t have listings,” Reffkin said. “If you want to think about free riding, they’re the ones free riding. Someone made a comment once that it’s like going to a picnic without a fork, or a potluck without a fork. This is worse. What Zillow is doing is going to the potluck without a fork, taking the food for free, and then selling it for 40% referral fee to other people, then shaming you for even being around.”

Next Compass’s counsel called Kerry Carr to the witness stand. Carr’s team serves clients in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 2024, the team recorded 194 transaction sides for $78.18 million in sales volume, earning it the No. 18 and No. 16 rankings among medium-sized teams in Pennsylvania, according to the 2025 RealTrends Verified Rankings. 

During her testimony, Carr explained how she and her team use the three-phased marketing strategy and provided examples of when she and her agents have used the strategy, as well as Compass’s private listing network. Carr testified that she received a warning from Zillow about a listing that she and her clients first advertised on Compass’s private exclusive network before bringing it to the MLS after getting feedback on the list price. She said that the warning frightened her and changed how she advises sellers about using Compass’s private listing network, and that she was worried about the impact on junior agents who depend on Zillow leads for business. 

“I present all the options. I explain it to them. We go through a ton of paperwork. It tells about the pros and cons of everything, and if they want to go straight to the MLS and go straight into open houses, we absolutely will do that,” Carr said during her testimony. 

“I was scared to continue using private exclusives,” Carr said of receiving the warning from Zillow. “I was angry, and I wrote back to Zillow. Why did I get this letter?”

Zillow’s Samuelson takes the stand

Samuelson was the final witness to take the stand on Tuesday, walking the judge through Zillow’s consumer products and revenue model. Throughout his testimony, Samuelson was questioned on some of his firm’s internal planning and strategy documents. According to his testimony, Zillow perceived private listing networks and the expansion of off‑MLS marketing as a systemic risk. 

“We were concerned about the contagion that you just described, that when you have Compass and other brokerages running these PLNs, other large brokerages would feel the need to create their own hidden listing network, private listing network,” Samuelson said.

“I think if you look at all of the written documentation that we put [out], there’s been a lot of it [where] we agree, it’s bad for Zillow, but our point is it is bad for consumers, competition, and the industry,” he added.

In order to combat this contagion, Zillow decided upon a “carrot and stick” strategy, as the firm decided it wanted “to be more aggressive with hardline tactics to keep ALL listings in IDX,” and by extension, Zillow, according to documents presented during the hearing as evidence. 

Samuelson clarified that carrots were incentives to brokerages and MLSs that maintain CCP, while sticks were things like the listing access standards policy, which the firm hoped to use to convince firms to follow CCP. 

Samuelson also answered questions about Zillow’s relationship with Redfin in regards to the two firms announcing similar listing access standards policy within days of each other. 

Samuelson said Zillow did not proactively solicit Redfin to announce a policy and internal documents show that he “made a point of not contacting Redfin.” However, he acknowledged there were rapid, contemporaneous exchanges between Zillow and Redfin personnel after Zillow announced its policy and that Redfin staff reported they had spoken with him or received information from Zillow, which was disclosed through internal Redfin emails presented at the hearing.

The hearing is scheduled to conclude on Friday with a ruling expected some time either later this year or early next year.