On Friday, a New York district judge denied a request by Compass, the nation’s largest residential brokerage company, for a preliminary injunction to stop Zillow from imposing its ban on privately marketed listings.
That means, as of now, Zillow can continue to enforce its Listing Access Standards (LAS) that maintain it will only display residential listings that have been shared on the multiple listing service within one day of marketing them to the public.
Compass slapped Zillow with an antitrust lawsuit back in June alleging the rule was an attempt to “protect its monopoly” and that it conspired with Redfin in doing so.
“Simply stated, the Zillow Ban mandates that if a home seller and her agent market a home off Zillow for more than one day, then Zillow and its allies will ban that listing from their search platforms, making the home invisible for many buyers,” Compass’s lawsuit reads. “The Zillow Ban seeks to ensure that all home listings in this country are steered on to its dominant search platform so Zillow can monetize each home listing and protect its monopoly.”
Days later, Compass sought a preliminary injunction. In her 50-page decision to deny that injunction, the judge noted Compass was not likely to win its case based on the evidence presented.
“Considered holistically, the record fails to show that Zillow possessed the power to exclude competition from the online home search market,” the order states.
“Even assuming that Zillow possesses a 50%–66% share of the relevant market, Compass has not provided sufficient evidence from which it can be inferred that Zillow has monopoly power in the online home search market,” it concludes.
Root of the Conflict
Compass offers sellers a three-phase marketing program, moving listings from "private exclusive” status to "coming soon" status to the MLS. The company says this marketing strategy helps “test pricing” and keeps properties from languishing on the market and being subjected to price drops.
The marketing mechanism stands in direct opposition to Zillow’s standards.
“Our standards are straightforward: If a listing is marketed directly to consumers without being listed on the MLS and made widely available where buyers search for homes, it will not be published on Zillow,” the online listing platform said when it announced the policy in April 2025.
Zillow began putting LAS into place in 2024 because of concerns that the National Association of REALTORS® would weaken its Clear Cooperation Policy. That policy, which went into effect in May 2020, requires broker participants in a REALTOR® association–owned MLS to submit listings to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants within one business day of marketing the property to the public. CCP doesn’t prohibit “coming soon” listings, marketing to private networks or office exclusives. Rather, it sets out to ensure that all MLS participants and buyers have a full view of the inventory in their market and sellers have full exposure of their property.
That policy has remained in effect. However, in March 2025, the National Association of REALTORS® announced a new policy statement called “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS),” which operates alongside CCP. MLOS provides sellers with more choice when it comes to delayed marketing, while at the same time gives MLSs the ability to determine how long that delayed marketing period should be.
Case Continues
The decision to deny Compass’s preliminary injunction is not a final judgment, but a spokesperson for Zillow called the ruling “a clear victory not just for Zillow, but for consumers, agents, brokerages and the real estate industry at large. Zillow believes everyone deserves equal access to the same real estate information at the same time. Compass does the opposite—hiding listings away in its private vault, harming consumers and small businesses to benefit itself. Compass filed this baseless lawsuit in an attempt to force Zillow to participate in that exclusionary scheme.”
REALTOR® News reached out to Compass for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication. However, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin released a statement, reported by Reuters, saying, “Today’s decision is not a loss, and our lawsuit continues. With agents being our clients, we have an obligation to protect our agents from Zillow.”
