Overview
- MRED suspended Zillow’s IDX and VOW feeds on Wednesday, cutting about 43,000 active Chicagoland listings from Zillow and Trulia and leaving fewer properties visible on those sites.
- Zillow has sued MRED and Compass in federal court and asked for a preliminary injunction to stop the cutoff, while MRED has moved to compel arbitration and the judge has not issued a final ruling.
- The dispute turns on Zillow’s policy to block listings that were privately marketed and MRED’s recently clarified IDX rule that forbids excluding listings based on the identity of a brokerage.
- MRED says affected listings remain available on thousands of other consumer sites and that broker tools like ShowingTime and dotloop are not affected, but sellers and buyers face reduced exposure and search options on Zillow’s platforms.
- The case involves Compass partnerships and court exhibits alleging lobbying to press MLSs to cut feeds, a fight that could reshape how MLS rules, private listing networks, and portals control which homes consumers see.