Following Zillow’s announcement yesterday that it will no longer prohibit home sellers and their real estate agents from publicly marketing a listing on Redfin.com or the Compass family of websites prior to marketing on Zillow, Compass, Inc., has declared it will dismiss its lawsuit against Zillow without prejudice.
Compass has voluntarily dropped its lawsuit contesting Zillow’s Listing Access Standards, putting an end to a legal battle over online listing sharing, display, and access. The dismissal comes after a federal court declared last month that Compass’s claims were unlikely to be successful.
For home sellers and their real estate agents, the lifting of the “Zillow Ban” is a “huge win.” It guarantees that real estate agents can fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to their customers without worrying about being blacklisted by Zillow, and that homeowners are free to choose when, where, and how to sell their properties.
“Our goal has always been to give homeowners more choice to decide when, where, and how to market their homes,” said Robert Reffkin, Chairman and CEO of Compass International Holdings. “We are pleased to see that other brokerages are now recognizing the strong consumer demand for more options in how they sell their homes. Homeowners deserve more choices, not fewer choices.”
The main points of contention were Compass’s plan to initially conceal listings from purchasers who haven’t hired a Compass realtor and Zillow’s requirements that listings receive widespread exposure. Compass filed a lawsuit against Zillow for blocking a tiny portion of those properties from showing up on its site.
A Zillow representative told the media following Compass’s announcement that it has dropped the lawsuit:
“Zillow welcomes Compass’ decision to voluntarily withdraw its meritless attack on Zillow’s pro-consumer standards after the court ruled that its complaint failed even the most basic legal hurdles and was unlikely to succeed. The underlying issue remains: Private listing networks undermine fair access to real estate information and are not in the best interests of consumers, and they never have been. Real estate works better when information is open and accessible.
To the extent Compass continues to limit transparency and harm consumers, agents and the marketplace by hiding listings in a private network, it is at odds with Zillow’s standards, which remain fully in effect. The distinction is simple: Zillow believes in broad, public exposure and access to listings; the Compass private exclusive listing network is hiding them.”
