Thanks to a deal struck by Zillow and Redfin in February, renters have had fewer options for browsing apartment listings, and they might not have even realized it. Now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing the companies alleging that their partnership violates antitrust laws calling it, “an illegal agreement to dismantle Redfin as a competitor.”
Zillow (which runs Trulia, HotPads, and StreetEasy) entered into a partnership in which it paid Redfin (which runs Rent.com and ApartmentGuide) to syndicate its ads for rentals. That means whether you were going to Zillow, Trulia, or Rent.com, you were seeing many of the exact same listings.
As part of that deal, Redfin also agreed to end its existing contracts with advertising customers, transfer them to Zillow and, according to the FTC complaint, not compete with Zillow for multifamily property listings for up to nine years. In a press release announcing the lawsuit the FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Competition said that, “paying off a competitor to stop competing against you is a violation of federal antitrust laws.”
The FTC further alleges that as part of this deal Redfin laid off hundreds of workers, then helped Zillow cherry pick the ones it wanted. Effectively, it sounds like the FTC is accusing Zillow of acquiring part of Redfin’s business, but hiding behind the guise of a “partnership” to try and avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Between its own listing sites, Redfin’s and Realtor.com (which Zillow entered a partnership with in 2024) Zillow effectively controls the vast majority of rental listings online when it comes to larger apartment complexes. This could drive up costs for landlords looking to list their apartments on these sites and make it harder for renters to find properties outside of Zillow’s network of advertisers. Zillow had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
