NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) – Compass, the largest U.S. residential real estate brokerage, on Wednesday dismissed its lawsuit accusing Zillow of violating antitrust law by restricting listings of new homes.
Zillow, the largest U.S. online real estate portal, was accused of illegally refusing to list homes that brokers had marketed privately for more than one business day, and conspiring with Redfin to keep homes off that platform. Compass called Zillow’s conduct the “Zillow ban.”
On Tuesday, Zillow launched Zillow Preview, which it said would bring pre-market home listings “into the open” by making them publicly visible on Zillow and Trulia, another portal it operates.
Compass said Zillow’s decision will give homeowners greater freedom to decide when, where and how to market their homes, and brokers the ability to serve clients without fear of being banned from Zillow’s platform.
Zillow and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In afternoon trading, Zillow shares were up 1.4%, while Compass shares were down 4.4%.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kirsten Donovan)
