FTC Sues Zillow and Redfin Over Allegedly Suppressing Rental Ad Competition

The alleged action by the companies limits choices for people who use such services to find rental homes, said the agency.

A home that Zillow shows was sold for more than $2 million in the Coconut Grove neighborhood in Miami, Fla., on Feb. 18, 2022. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued real estate companies Zillow and Redfin for allegedly entering into an unlawful agreement that suppressed advertising competition for multifamily properties, the agency announced in a Sept. 30 statement.

The Sept. 30 lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, stated that millions of Americans use online rental marketplaces or internet listing services (ILS) to search for and find rental homes, with a few players, such as Zillow and Redfin, dominating this space. The companies are two of America’s largest rental ILS networks in terms of traffic and revenue, said the FTC statement.