Zillow's Controversial Private Listings Ban Hits A Snag in Chicago

Zillow’s controversial private listings ban is drawing pushback from one of the nation’s largest multiple listing services (MLSs).

In April, the Seattle-based portal announced a policy to combat listings being withheld from the MLSs it sources leads from. The policy was ostensibly designed to disincentivise brokerages that wanted to keep a seller's listing in their own closed network, but as it turns out, the brokerages are not the only ones with private networks.

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), which serves nearly 50,000 members across the Chicago region and is one of the largest MLSs in the country, has had its own private listings network for nine years.

Although enforcement of the ban was due to begin in June, a Zillow spokesperson confirmed to Inman on Monday that the portal is in discussions with MRED and has yet to enforce its policy in the Chicago area as a result.

The situation is potentially very awkward for Zillow as it is attempting to force its policy on an MLS that it relies upon to supply its platform's listings.

A recap on the private listings saga

In April, Zillow announced a policy designed to halt the rise of private listings in the US market. The portal said the policy would exclude from its platform any listing that had been publicly marketed, whether via social media, brokerage websites, or even yard signs, unless it had also been submitted to a Multiple Listing Service within 24 hours.

In response, and in an attempt to ingratiate itself among agents, CoStar-owned Homes.com said that it would actually boost listings affected by Zillow's ban. Redfin, on the other hand, agreed with Zillow and announced a similar private listings ban. Realtor.com, which is beholden to the NAR, sat on the fence.

Since then, the brokerage firm Compass has sued Zillow, claiming its ban was anticompetitive and an abuse of its "monopoly power", and a few days ago, Inman's reporting showed that Redfin has actually decided not to enforce its ban.

The legal battle between Compass and Zillow is ongoing. Last week, a judge denied Compass's request to access a blog post written by Redfin boss Glenn Kelman, which it claims could have proved that Zillow and Redfin colluded on their respective listings ban.