The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Zillow (NASDAQ: Z, ZG) and the Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT) for what the agency described as “an unlawful agreement that eliminates Redfin as a competitor in the market for placing advertising of rental housing on internet listing services.”
The FTC’s complaint cited an agreement from last February where Redfin agreed to withdraw as a competitor in the online listings market for multifamily rental properties in exchange for a $100 million payment and other compensation from Zillow. The FTC noted that that companies presented this agreement as a “partnership” when it removed Redfin as direct competition for Zillow.
The FTC warned the agreement could create higher prices and worse terms for multifamily unit advertising. The complaint seeks to terminate the agreement while considering either “a potential divestiture of assets or the reconstruction of businesses to restore competition.”
“Paying off a competitor to stop competing against you is a violation of federal antitrust laws,” said Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Zillow paid millions of dollars to eliminate Redfin as an independent competitor in an already concentrated advertising market—one that’s critical for renters, property managers, and the health of the overall US housing market. The FTC will do our part to ensure that Americans who are looking for safe, affordable rentals receive all the benefits of robust competition between internet listing services like Zillow and Redfin.”
The companies did not immediately respond to the lawsuit.
Zillow is the corrupt as they cancelled my account to sell my territory to the higher bidder. The R&R group. It was really shady that they called me In July last year to increase my territory and by October sent me an email that they no longer were servicing the 92311 area. I complained to zillow corporate who finally told me that the entire 92311 went to R&R group for a large amount of money, more than what I was paying $138 dollars. So no local agents in the 92311 could market the area as over 45 min away was the R&R group of over several agents. Basically Zillow washed me and other out for more money. Zillow Says they do not have any agents in the 92311 territory any longer. If you want a home in Barstow you have to use an agent outside of barstow. I contacted you and your response was you do not handle this kind of issue.
I would love to file a suit against Zillow, as a rental landlord they take information from our site and list it on Zillow and never clarify it is a rental.
How can you do this now for years, I also agree their pricing doesn’t pencil out for rentals. If you have multiple properties.
in my area zillow is not promoting the rental leads to the listing agent in the IDX feed
Zillow excludes listing agents so when buyers call in they get a referral fee from another agent selling the property. Everything is geared towards referrals.
There is so much wrong with Zillow that I don’t even know where to start. Inaccurate information, false information, missing information – you name it, they do it.
I hope the FTC sets some new standards for them which are as rigorous as the regulations that real estate agents and property managers MUST adhere to.
I mean, who decided that they were to be exempt for fiduciary obligations, ethics standards & disclosure laws?
Good for you FTC. Go get ’em!!!
IDX Listings
MLS rules allow Zillow, Redfin, etc., to pull listings through IDX feeds.
This means your listings appear on their sites, often with other agents’ faces attached (through “premier agent” advertising).
Lead Capture & Resale
Zillow and Redfin monetize your listings by capturing inquiries and selling them back as leads.
ShowingTime Ownership
Since Zillow bought ShowingTime, they now have access to sensitive seller and buyer data (showings, feedback, even offer management tools).
Industry Influence
Zillow and Redfin now sit on boards and committees of Realtor associations, giving them policy influence.
exactly this! I never put who the tour is with.
You are right. I always exclude the buyers name.
Don’t forget Zillow owns Dotloop!!!! Vertically intigrated and powerful…..good luck reining them in. That chance was given up years ago.
I support bringing Zillow into legal accountability. Zillow has created a monopoly in the industry and it is a disservice to the public and those in need of advertising their properties. Its time to bring Federal charges against them and get back to fair market practices.
I’m still trying to discover how all these websites, in the past several years, can grab our professional photos, paid by me and all the other agents that provide professional photos for their clients.
Lillian-
You make a really good point that agents spend there time and money to get these homes “market ready” and that these other sites are using the information from MLS listings to make money and capture leads.
So I believe this is how it works. Your local MLS Board has contracts to resell “unbranded listings via IDX, with companies like Zillow. Zillow pays the local MLS board lots of money to re-sell your listings. So right now it is the local MLS listings that make the money off this re-use of listings. Fix: local real estate agents have to put pressure on the local MLS to charge more and maybe a portion or all of that money should trickle down to the agents who actual get listings. As far as I know, being a local Silicon Valley User on the original REIL.com starting back in 2001 the digital MLS prior to ProMLSListings.com this system has been in place for more than 20 years.