Overview
- A two-day hearing that ran July 1–2 heard testimony from Zillow, MRED and Compass executives and competing economists while a court order restoring Zillow’s Chicago listings remains in place and post-hearing briefs are due July 9 with replies due July 13.
- Zillow says MRED and Compass conspired to cut off its feed to force the portal to carry private or registration-gated listings and that its Listing Access Standards simply bar public marketing that occurs more than one business day before MLS posting.
- MRED and Compass counter that the dispute is enforcement of neutral MLS licensing rules, not an antitrust plot, and both CEOs testified they were threatened by Zillow executives during pretrial negotiations.
- Expert witnesses offered sharply different views on market harm, with one economist saying a feed cut would inflict major damage on Zillow’s business and another saying Compass and MRED do not compete with Zillow.
- The court’s interim decision will shape whether portals can be blocked from showing broker-controlled private listings and could affect listing visibility, agent income and how buyers find homes as MRED seeks broader national data partnerships.