Zillow Loses Access to Thousands of Chicago-Area Listings After Filing Lawsuit

Zillow lost access to thousands of property listings in the Chicago area on Wednesday after filing a lawsuit against Midwest Real Estate Data LLC and Compass. The company said the loss occurred after it accused the two entities of colluding to hide homes from public view through a private listing network.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the number of listings visible on Zillow and Trulia fell from nearly 5,000 to about 1,700.

Zillow filed the antitrust complaint last week.

It alleges that Midwest Real Estate Data LLC, which operates Chicago’s multiple listing service, and Compass, the area’s dominant brokerage, entered into an agreement that blocks platforms from showing all available homes. The complaint states that Compass keeps listings behind a registration wall in a private listing network rather than sharing them transparently.

Zillow said this practice allows Compass to direct buyers to its own agents and increases the chance that its agents represent both sides of a transaction. com continue to show between 5,000 and 8,000 listings in the same market, the Sun-Times reported.