A federal judge has rejected an effort by CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) to file an amicus curiae brief in the lawsuit between Zillow (NASDAQ: Z, ZG), Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Compass International Holdings (NYSE: COMP).
Judge John Tharp of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, an Obama appointee, rejected CoStar’s motion without providing a reason for his denial.
Last month, a federal judge ordered the Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) to restore Zillow’s access to its multiple listing service while also ordering Zillow to display nine Chicago-area listings from Compass that it blocked under its policy prohibiting private listings. This followed MRED’s decision to block Zillow from accessing its licensed listing data feeds for display on Zillow’s consumer-facing websites.
That, in turn, followed Zillow’s federal antitrust lawsuit against MRED and Compass, which claimed the companies threatened to terminate its Chicago-area listings unless Zillow agreed to display Compass’ private listings nationwide. Zillow’s policies prohibit private listings on its platforms and the judge’s ruling did not require Zillow to end its policy in other markets.
The CoStar Group’s brief questioned why Zillow is seeking court-ordered access to MLS listings while it is also restricting its competitors from having access to its exclusive pre-market listings in Zillow Previews. CoStar alleged Zillow’s is stifling competition while trying to consolidate control over residential listing inventory.
Gene Boxer, CoStar’s general counsel, offered a positive outlook on the judge’s ruling.
“We sought to call attention to Zillow’s obvious hypocrisy: Zillow is asking the Court to guarantee its access to MLS listing data while simultaneously creating its own pre-market listing channel and seeking to restrict others,” said Boxer. “That contradiction matters to the entire residential real estate industry. Zillow cannot claim to be defending openness and transparency while building a system that advantages Zillow, withholds inventory from competing platforms and undermines the very principles it invokes in court.”
A Zillow spokesperson welcomed the ruling. In an email to Weekly Real Estate News, the spokesperson declared, “The court will not consider any aspect of CoStar’s proposed brief in the litigation. Notably, the judge issued this summary denial without even waiting for Zillow to file any opposition to CoStar’s motion. As we pointed out at the time, the narrative CoStar spun in its proposed amicus brief was irrelevant to the facts of this case and clearly just designed to drive a news cycle for the misinformation the brief contained.”
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