Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate.
FTC lawsuit cost Zillow shareholders millions, new suit alleges
A Zillow shareholder filed a securities class action in the Western District of Washington on June 9, alleging the company and its top executives misled investors about the legal risk of its $100 million deal with Redfin—a deal the FTC sued over in September 2025 on antitrust grounds.
The complaint names CEO Jeremy Wacksman and CFO Jeremy Hofmann and covers shareholders who bought Zillow stock between Feb. 11, 2025 and May 7, 2026.
Plaintiff Matt Breidert alleges Zillow publicly framed its Redfin deal as a “partnership” while concealing that it effectively eliminated Redfin as a competitor in the multifamily rental advertising market—a structure that exposed the company to materially heightened regulatory risk, he claims.
Zillow and Redfin have sharply denied the allegations in the FTC lawsuit, which was joined by multiple states Attorneys General. Both Redfin and Zillow have also argued that the FTC lawsuit ignores pro-competitive benefits of their deal.
A federal judge in May allowed that lawsuit to move forward.
CoStar pushes back on Zillow’s bid to dismiss photo copyright suit
CoStar Group filed its opposition to Zillow’s motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit over rental listing photographs, arguing the portal actively copied, curated and distributed more than 53,000 proprietary images—conduct that goes well beyond the passive hosting Zillow claims in its defense.
Filed June 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the brief alleges Zillow used CoStar’s watermarked photographs to populate unclaimed property pages, run paid Google ads, syndicate listings to partner sites including Redfin and Trulia, and train algorithms behind its Zestimate valuation tool—each an independent act of infringement, CoStar argues.
CoStar’s General Counsel Gene Boxer, in a statement to RISMedia, noted that Zillow’s motion to dismiss is a transparent attempt to avoid accountability for mass infringement of over 50,000 CoStar-copyrighted images.
“In an attempt to quickly build its rental listings business, Zillow is engaging in mass infringement,” he continued. “This is consistent with the slew of misconduct for which Zillow is currently being sued in federal court.”
Zillow’s motion is scheduled for oral arguments June 26 before U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead.
CoStar seeks to weigh in on Zillow-MRED battle
CoStar filed an amicus brief—a brief filed by a non-party, or a “friend of the court”— urging a federal judge to deny Zillow’s effort to block Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Compass from cutting off its listing feed, arguing the portal giant is seeking court-ordered access to MLS listings while hoarding its own exclusive pre-market inventory.
“Zillow wants a court order forcing MLSs to hand over their listings while Zillow hoards its own exclusive pre-market inventory—a breathtaking ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ proposition,” said Gene Boxer, CoStar’s general counsel, in a statement.
A Zillow spokesperson, in a statement sent to RISMedia, noted that CoStar and Compass are making the same flawed argument—that pre-marketing and private marketing are the same thing.
Zillow Preview is pre-marketing—publicly visible for any buyer to see it, save it and connect with the listing agent directly for free; no buyer is required to work with any specific brokerage to access it, their spokesperson noted.
“Compass Private Exclusives are pay-to-play private marketing. Those listings are hidden from buyers unless they work with a Compass agent,” the spokesperson continued. “The explicit purpose is to route listings through Compass’s own network before—or instead of—making them available to the public. Calling those the same thing is a word game designed to muddy a clear distinction.”
Washington private listing law goes into effect
Senate Bill 6091 took effect June 11, requiring any residential property publicly marketed in Washington be concurrently marketed to the general public and all real estate brokers.
Compass maintained its Private Exclusives and Coming Soon listings are fully compliant, arguing the law affirms seller choice and that NWMLS rules remain the more restrictive obstacle.
Justin Haag, NWMLS CEO, countered that members already comply under longstanding MLS rules, and—at a panel hosted June 11—speakers framed limited marketing as a fair housing risk and a form of “digital redlining.”
Federal judge orders Compass, NWMLS to report on discovery disputes in private listing suit
U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead of the Western District of Washington, on June 9, ordered Compass and Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) to meet, confer and file a joint status report within 14 days addressing the status of outstanding discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation between the parties.
The order came on Compass’s motion to compel, in which it argued NWMLS showed “significant gamesmanship” and persistent deficiencies in its document productions.
The court directed the parties to report on whether NWMLS has made adequate rolling productions, supplemented its response to interrogatories and corrected metadata issues. The motion is set for June 23.
The suit has seen NWMLS file counterclaims against Compass’s three-phased marketing program and Compass move to dismiss those counterclaims.
FTC, State AGs seek partial summary judgment in Zillow-Redfin antitrust case
The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, New York and Washington filed a motion for partial summary judgment June 10 in the abovementioned antitrust case against Zillow and Redfin in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Plaintiffs want the court to settle two issues before trial: that Internet Listing Service (ILS) advertising for rental and multifamily properties are the correct antitrust markets, and that Zillow’s $100 million deal to absorb Redfin’s multifamily advertising business constitutes an illegal asset acquisition under the Clayton Act.
If granted, the only remaining question for trial would be whether the defendants’ claimed benefits justify the deal’s anticompetitive effects.
Jury awards Florida broker $47.8M in damages after six-year fight over commission
A Miami-Dade jury, on May 15, awarded Florida broker Alexander Goldstein of Miles Goldstein Real Estate $47.8 million in damages—$19.83 million in compensatory damages and $28 million in punitive damages—stemming from a 2018 commission dispute.
Goldstein alleged his buyer, Reuben Ezekiel, abruptly ended their relationship after a year of property searches, then submitted a contract on the same Gold Beach waterfront listing less than two hours later—using his sister, Irene Ezekiel Ishay, as broker of record to divert an $84,000 commission back to himself.
The jury found Ezekiel liable for fraud, tortious interference and conspiracy.
Defense attorney Peter Solnik called the verdict “grossly excessive” and filed an amended motion for a new trial on May 22; no final judgment has been issued.
