Real estate company Zillow has filed a lawsuit against two home-listing services from the Phoenix and Milwaukee areas. According to Zillow, the services are engaging in anti-competitive tactics that are harming real-estate agents.
The lawsuit alleges that the home-listing services Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service and Metro Multiple Listing Service will cause “antitrust injury” to Zillow and its brand ShowingTime, which facilitates home buyer tours.
Zillow says the defendants were originally integrated with ShowingTime. However, the defendants eventually joined into a consortium and launched their own showing service.
Zillow alleges the group tried to steer agents toward the new service by changing default settings and disparaged Zillow’s service. They then removed the Zillow service from their members’ portals altogether.
Zillow claims the defendants affected agents’ ability to choose what services they use.
