Zillow Sued over "Masked Listings" on StreetEasy

Zillow has been sued over allegations that StreetEasy allowed multiple brokers to list the same unit on the platform, effectively hiding listings from public view.

A New York City broker filed a lawsuit contesting that Zillow hid listings while still charging a daily listing fee. George T. Spyridakis, an associate broker with eXp, paid $7 a day for each of his 250 listings but argues that some of his listings were masked from the public because of duplication.

Spyridakis alleges that StreetEasy, a specialised New York portal owned by Zillow, only shows the most recent listing on its platform, demoting older listings from view.

He says damages exceed $5 million for lost business on "numerous occasions".

Spyridakis's complaint says:

Zillow allows multiple listing Realtors to list the same property for rent at the same time on its StreetEasy platform, charging each listing Realtor $7.00 per day.

StreetEasy has yet to respond, however, its listings quality policy states that only one copy of a rental unit is permitted on its platform, and the company will not approve the same unit to be advertised by more than one party at a time.