For years, the residential real estate industry has operated on a basic premise: listings should be broadly distributed so buyers can see what is for sale and sellers can attract the widest pool of bidders. That model is now under strain as some of the industry’s largest brokerages increasingly push homes through private listing networks that limit who can see inventory and when. Zillow’s new federal antitrust lawsuit against Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Compass represents the sharpest escalation yet in that fight, and the outcome could reshape how homes are marketed across the country.Filed in federal court in Chicago on May 12, Zillow’s complaint accuses MRED and Compass of conspiring to pressure Zillow into displaying listings that violate Zillow’s transparency standards by threatening to cut off access to listing data. Zillow argues the arrangement amounts to an unlawful group boycott under the Sherman Antitrust Act and an abuse of monopoly power by MRED, which controls the dominant MLS in the Chicago region...
RSK: This happens all the time in CRE, people pocket listings before they put it on one of the exchanges. In fact, Cirex was the first commercial real estate listing services in the USA.
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- - Volume: 26 - WEEK: 21 Date: 5/19/2026 9:13:49 PM -