Zillow has urged the federal court to reject Compass’ requests for a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery, arguing the real estate brokerage’s three-month delay in filing the lawsuit undermines their claims of urgency.
In an opposition letter responding to Compass’ motion, Zillow claimed “there is no emergency here,” pointing to the gap between Zillow’s announcement in April and Compass’s filing last week.
At the core
Compass first filed the suit against Zillow back on June 24, arguing that a ban on many private listings constituted a violation of antitrust laws; they also accused the company of conspiring with Redfin and eXp to undercut Compass’ “innovative” marketing strategy, which relies on private listings.
Zillow, today, pushed back, saying the brokerage’s demand for a court-ordered pause on the new rules “fails in every respect.”
“(W)hen Compass fails to sell a home through its own agents and ‘public-facing’ platform (contrary to its appeals to privacy), it asks the Court to force Zillow to display that listing for free,” Zillow wrote. “It is well-settled that the antitrust laws do not impose such a duty to deal.”
Timeline
On top of the three-month delay, Compass proposed a three-month schedule for its preliminary injunction, something Zillow argued is more evidence that Compass does not have any real urgency over the ban.
Compass argues irreparable harm, but Zillow claims that can’t be the case, given Compass’s “months of delay in seeking relief.”
In their motion for expedited discovery, Compass defends the tight timeline of six to eight weeks due to the “irreparable harm from (Zillow’s) actions…until an injunction is in place.”
Calling the request for discovery overbroad and highly burdensome, Zillow’s counsel said the production of data requested would likely require several months, at a minimum, according to the joint letter, with likely hundreds of thousands of documents and terabytes of data at issue. They did say a narrowed scope of discovery, which they proposed in their letter brief, could be completed within a few weeks.
Because of the “significant irreparable harm that Compass has, and will continue to suffer,” Compass previously urged the court to grant an evidentiary hearing on the preliminary injunction. Zillow also requested that it be afforded discovery “reciprocal in number and scope.”
Bigger picture
In their separate letter brief to U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, Zillow’s lawyers argue that Compass’s lawsuit would reverse the technological transformations of allowing home sale listings to be available for free to anyone on the internet.
“Compass would erect new barriers for buyers by making listings exclusive to each broker—resulting in reduced transparency, less market liquidity and a more-frustrating and less-efficient experience for buyers and sellers,” their statement reads.
“Compass claims to ‘differentiate’ itself from other brokers by maintaining a stock of home-sale listings that buyers can access only through Compass and therefore create a sense of ‘urgency’ to sell homes at a ‘premium,’” their statement reads. “Nothing in Zillow’s Standards prevents Compass from doing this.”
