Zillow and Redfin have reached a significant settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and five state attorneys general, bringing to a close an antitrust case that was scheduled to head to trial on Monday morning. The agreement resolves allegations that Zillow paid its largest rental-market competitor $100 million to abandon the business and refrain from competing in rental advertising for as long as nine years. TechCrunch reported the settlement addresses concerns about Zillow's market dominance. Had the original partnership proceeded, Zillow's power in rental advertising would have been firmly cemented, potentially allowing it to charge higher prices and impose worse terms on property managers.
Redfin operates Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com. These platforms rank among the largest rental-listing services in the country, making Redfin one of Zillow's largest competitors in rental advertising. According to the FTC and state attorneys general from Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and Washington, Zillow's partnership with Redfin was anticompetitive at its core. Zillow was essentially using its dominance to pay a significant competitor to abandon the market entirely. Zillow and Redfin defended the arrangement as a way for renters to access listings across multiple platforms and discover more options.
Under the settlement's terms, Redfin must now reenter the rental advertising business independently. Going forward, the company can continue displaying Zillow's rental listings without facing restrictions on selling its own advertising, displaying inventory from its own clients, or sharing sensitive business information with Zillow.
Antitrust enforcement against dominant tech platforms has intensified significantly in recent years as regulators have stepped up scrutiny of market power abuse. Similar high-profile actions have targeted Ticketmaster and Live Nation in recent enforcement actions. In the Live Nation case, 26 state attorneys general pursued their own separate litigation independently after a Department of Justice settlement and secured a major victory in April. Suppressing competition through exclusive payments and restrictive partnerships has emerged as a clear priority area for FTC enforcement actions against major technology companies. The Zillow settlement signals that regulators will continue to aggressively target these anticompetitive tactics.