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Judge Consolidates Antitrust Lawsuits Targeting Zillow-Redfin Rental Deal

By  |  December 1, 2025

A federal court has decided that two separate antitrust challenges aimed at Zillow and Redfin will proceed as a single case, streamlining the legal fight over a rental-listing arrangement that regulators argue harms competition.

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    Right before the Thanksgiving holiday, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga approved the request to merge a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission with a similar lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Washington. According to a statement from the agencies, the decision means the companies will now defend their agreement in one combined proceeding.

    The FTC first launched its legal challenge at the end of September, accusing the two real-estate technology firms of entering into a partnership that pushes out rivals in the multifamily rental advertising business. The participating states filed their own case one day later, per statements from their offices, adopting the same core concerns.

    At the center of the litigation is a commercial agreement announced earlier this year. Per the terms described by regulators, Zillow agreed to pay Redfin $100 million to supply rental listings exclusively to Redfin.com and the rental platforms it owns, including Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com. Government lawyers argue that this deal tightened an already concentrated marketplace and could weaken options for renters and property managers.

    The FTC and the states say only a few firms — including Zillow, Redfin and CoStar’s Apartments.com — currently dominate online rental advertising. In a statement included in the complaint, Daniel Guarnera of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition said, “Zillow paid millions of dollars to eliminate Redfin as an independent competitor in an already concentrated advertising market — one that’s critical for renters, property managers, and the health of the overall U.S. housing market.”

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    Zillow has maintained that the arrangement creates benefits rather than obstacles for consumers and industry partners. According to a statement the company issued in September, “Our listing syndication with Redfin benefits both renters and property managers and has expanded renters’ access to multifamily listings across multiple platforms.”

    Redfin has echoed that defense, noting a decline in rental advertising demand on its platform. The company said in its prior statement that “By the end of 2024, it was clear that the existing number of Redfin advertising customers couldn’t justify the cost of maintaining our rentals sales force,” adding that “Partnering with Zillow cut those costs and enabled us to invest more in rental-search innovations on Redfin.com, directly benefiting apartment seekers.”

    The rental partnership has also been referenced in separate litigation involving Compass, where attorneys have pointed to the agreement as what they say initiated alleged coordination between Zillow and Redfin. According to a statement made during that hearing, the rental plan was described as the deal that “gave rise to the conspiracy.”

    With both government cases now unified, Zillow and Redfin are expected to confront a more focused challenge to their shared rental-listings strategy as the dispute continues through the federal court system.

    Source: Real Estate News