FTC and Five States Settle Antitrust Case Over Zillow-Redfin Rental Listings Deal
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The Facts
- The FTC and five states announced a settlement with Zillow and Redfin on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026.
- The settlement came as a trial in the case was scheduled to begin in federal court in Virginia.
- The FTC alleged Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to stop competing in apartment rental listings.
- The February 2025 agreement required Redfin to exclusively repost apartment listings provided by Zillow.
- The agreement would have kept Redfin out of the rental internet listing services market for up to nine years.
- The FTC filed a proposed order with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia requiring Redfin to restart its standalone rental housing listings business.
- The FTC and states said Redfin will resume its rental advertising business within six months.
- The companies will pay $2 million to reimburse the state attorneys general who brought the case.
- The settlement resolves litigation brought by attorneys general in Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Washington.
- The FTC said restoring competition in the listings market is expected to drive down costs and spur innovation benefiting renters and property managers.
- Zillow has denied that the arrangement was anticompetitive.
- Redfin will continue receiving Zillow's multifamily listings and lead payments through at least 2030.
Context
What did the original Zillow-Redfin deal do?
Under the February 2025 agreement, Zillow became the exclusive provider of multifamily rental listings on Redfin's sites Seattle Times. Redfin agreed to stop selling its own advertising for large apartment buildings, transfer those advertising customers to Zillow, and stay out of the rental internet listing services market for up to nine years Aol,Seattle Times,Daily Caller. Redfin owns the rental platforms Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com TechCrunch.
What changes under the settlement?
The proposed order removes what the FTC called anticompetitive provisions, allowing Redfin to keep syndicating Zillow's rental listings while also relaunching its own rental advertising business Aol,Verge. The FTC said Redfin will re-enter the internet listing services market with significantly more listings and invest tens of millions of dollars in the business Morningstar,engadget. Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said the deal "delivers better, quicker, more certain results for both renters and property management companies" Verge.
What is still outstanding, and how did the companies respond?
The proposed order is subject to court approval, according to Redfin Napa Valley Register. The Wall Street Journal reported the order contains no admission of liability or wrongdoing by Zillow WSJ. Zillow said the resolution allows its partnership with Redfin to continue, and Redfin called the outcome a victory for the company, renters and housing providers Napa Valley Register,news.bloomberglaw.c…,Barchart.com.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both read the $100 million payout as buying the absence of a rival, and both back the order returning Redfin to rental listings within six months.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Both endorse the remedy: one because listing users had no seat at the table and the order is only a floor, the other because prices mean nothing without live rivals.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust in institutions and time horizon: whether a consent order is self-executing once rivals are back in the field, or only holds as long as someone keeps policing it.
How left and right read it
Competition in housing listings is not something one company should be able to buy from another. Yet the FTC alleged that: $100 million to stop competing, nine years out of the rental market, terms struck between firms with nobody speaking for the people who use those listings. So an order to restart a standalone rental business within six months is a floor, not a finish, and it must be enforced.
“The FTC alleged that Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to shut down listing services for multifamily properties and to repost exclusively Zillow-provided apartment listings.” — CBS News
A market price means something only when rivals are actually competing to set it. Paying a competitor $100 million to leave apartment rental listings, and to repost only your listings for as long as nine years, does not win customers — it buys the absence of anyone who might. That is not a market. Enforcement that puts Redfin back in the field within six months restores the discipline both firms owed their customers in the first place.
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