Zillow responds to FTC claims as antitrust case moves forward 

After months of delays involving squabbles over discovery documents and a denied motion to dismiss, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin is back on track.

The case, which the federal agency filed in September 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Alexandria Division, alleges that the two real estate giants violated antitrust laws when Zillow paid $100 million to become Redfin's exclusive multifamily rental listings provider in early 2025.

Five state attorneys general joined the FTC in suing Zillow and Redfin over the partnership in October. The FTC and state cases were merged in November.

What Zillow had to say: Zillow has now responded to the FTC's initial complaint. In a May 20 filing, the company denied breaking antitrust laws and argued that its deal with Redfin is good for renters because it has led to an increase in the number of apartment listings available on Redfin's website.

In countering the FTC's claim that Redfin's listing service was on the rise, Zillow's 23-page filing said Redfin was in a difficult financial position and needed help after its 2021 purchase of RentPath — a company that was in bankruptcy. After years of investment, Zillow said Redfin was unable to meaningfully grow its inventory.

"By late 2024, Redfin was buckling under more than $800 million in debt with no realistic path to becoming a meaningful competitor," Zillow attorneys wrote. "Facing this bleak reality — not the rosy picture in the complaint (from the FTC) — Redfin decided to make a change and exclusively syndicate multifamily listings through a third party, ultimately selecting Zillow."

Zillow also claimed the agreement with Redfin "injected tens of thousands of new apartment listings onto Redfin's websites, giving renters significantly more options — including lower-cost apartments."

However, Zillow said in a key admission that it did not report the agreement to the government as required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. The law instructs companies "to file premerger notifications with the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department for certain acquisitions," according to the FTC's website.

Why the case is moving forward: Zillow and Redfin filed a motion to dismiss the case in January, arguing that the partnership makes "renters and property managers better off" and that the plaintiffs "have not alleged any harm to renters using the Zillow and Redfin listing services, have not pled markets that capture the full breadth of competition for rental advertising, and have not even tried to allege that Defendants have sufficient market power to harm competition."

But U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga denied the motion on May 6, allowing the case to move forward. In his four-page ruling, Trenga said that the court's obligation at the procedural stage is to consider the allegations "in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs" — and that the FTC's claims were plausible.