Zillow Group Inc. lost its bid to force Illinois’ largest provider of real estate listings to provide access to its data about homes for sale.
US District Judge John Tharp Jr. in Chicago dissolved a previous order that required Midwest Real Estate Data, the multiple listings service for the Chicagoland area, to temporarily maintain Zillow’s access to listings. Tharp ordered Zillow to engage in arbitration over its listings contract with MRED.
The ruling is a key win for Compass Inc., the largest US residential brokerage and a major source of listings to MRED. Zillow had sought to exclude Compass listings from its site, but MRED said that violated their terms of service and shut off all access for two days. Compass, which is seeking to build a private listings network, has been at odds with public portals like Zillow.
Tharp found that Zillow hadn’t offered enough evidence to sustain the allegation of an illegal group boycott between MRED and Compass it made in its May lawsuit.
“While the loss of access to listing feeds would undoubtedly harm Zillow, it will only experience such harm if it attempts to enforce its listing standards,” Tharp wrote in his opinion. “If Zillow doesn’t enforce its listing ban, it will not lose access to the listing feeds and it can avoid any harm.”
MRED said the decision reinforces the ability of listing services “to consistently enforce their rules and data licensing agreements.”
In a statement on its website, Zillow said it was disappointed in the decision, which it called “a step back for Chicago home buyers and sellers.” The company said it will continue with the case as it moves into arbitration.
Compass hailed the ruling as a win for consumers. “This decision affirms that choice belongs to the homeowner, and any effort to punish consumers for exercising that choice is anti‑competitive and harmful to consumers,” the company said in a statement.
Seattle-based Zillow previously won a court order that reinstated the Chicago-area listings after MRED cut off its data feed in May. In his decision Thursday, Tharp declined to extend the order that MRED continue to provide listings to Zillow.
The Midwest may be the first of many regions where Zillow will have to fight for access to listings. In the last year, Compass has been working to establish partnerships with the nation’s largest MLSs, including those overseeing Tennessee, California, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and DC. These efforts could disrupt the US real estate portal industry, some of which like Zillow are third-party aggregators that rely on MLS data to source home listings.
In March 2025, The National Association of Realtors, a trade group representing more than 1.4 million agents, instituted new rules on listings that allow individual listing services to set the rules when sellers want to limit marketing of certain properties.
In response, Zillow created its own policy that it wouldn’t accept listings not available to the broader public, including those behind a login or registration wall or properties only visible to people working with the listing brokerage.
Compass filed an antitrust lawsuit challenging the policy last year. A federal judge in New York declined to block Zillow’s policy in February, saying Compass failed to show the home-listing site has a monopoly in the online home search market.
Compass subsequently dismissed its suit, and Zillow began enforcing its policy, except in Chicago.
MRED, the leading listing service in Illinois and counties surrounding Chicago, said in court filings that it informed Zillow that a ban on certain listings violates MRED’s own rules, which prohibit the filtering of listings based on the brokerage or agent.
Zillow alleged that MRED, which holds a monopoly on listings in the Chicago area, conspired with Compass, the largest broker in the area, to force Zillow to change its policies and block the home-listings site from competing in the market.
The case is Zillow v. Midwest Real Estate Data, 26-cv-5451, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
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