Zillow asks court for restraining order to restore MRED data feed
After the MLS cut Zillow’s feeds — a “dramatic and unprecedented decision,” per a court filing — the portal requested an emergency order to reinstate access.
Key points:
- Zillow is seeking immediate action from the court after losing access to a large swath of Chicago-area listings due to a suspension of its data feeds.
- The portal claims MRED’s actions are causing “monumental and irreparable harms,” and says the MLS “rewrote its rules to force this to happen.”
- Compass and MRED countered those claims in filings on May 22, arguing that any alleged harm is “manufactured” and “self-inflicted.”
Update: A judge has partially granted Zillow's request for a temporary restraining order. Read more here.
The impasse between Zillow and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) appears to remain firmly in place following the Chicagoland MLS's May 20 decision to cut listing data feeds to the search giant.
On May 21, Zillow filed a motion asking an Illinois District Court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to "immediately reinstate" the portal's access to MRED's listing feeds and prevent the MLS and Compass from furthering their alleged "group boycott conspiracy" against Zillow.
More details on the motion, 'panicked' agents
Zillow's Thursday filing reiterates many of the claims previously laid out in its lawsuit against Compass and MRED, filed on May 12.
The motion refers to MRED as "the monopolist multiple listing service in Chicagoland" and describes its move to terminate Zillow's access to the MLS's listing feeds as a "dramatic and unprecedented decision."
"Panicked Chicagoland agents have rushed to the phone lines to ask Zillow when MRED will restore their listings and explain the immediate harms to their independent businesses," the motion states.
Zillow raises alarm over 'monumental and irreparable harms'
In addition to harming agents, the portal alleges that MRED's suspension of its listing feeds means that Zillow is "effectively foreclosed from competing with Compass and MRED in Chicagoland."
"There is no way to quantify the monumental and irreparable harms that Defendants' listings blackout already has begun to inflict on Zillow's business in the region, to agents, to the public, and to the market, and particularly to the nascent Zillow Preview offering," the motion continues, arguing that a temporary restraining order is the only remedy.
MRED and Compass say harm is 'self-inflicted'
The two defendants in Zillow's lawsuit pushed back on the restraining order request in court documents filed Friday morning.
MRED's response focused on the portal's claims of irreparable harm and the merits of its antitrust allegations — two factors the judge is likely to consider when ruling on the TRO. "Driven by concern that its business model will generate less revenue, Zillow is trying to turn a simple dispute over the terms of license agreements (which should be sent to arbitration) into an antitrust case," MRED's May 22 filing states. The MLS characterizes the lawsuit as Zillow attempting "to secure the right to reduce output" by prohibiting certain listings — which, MRED argues, "is contrary to antitrust theory and makes no economic sense."
"Disputes like this about potential money damages arising from alleged 'lost business' and decreased 'quantity of listings on Zillow's website' are not worthy of injunctive relief," the filing continues, adding that "Zillow's harm is self-inflicted, avoidable, and can be remedied today by simply complying with its license agreements."
Compass' response also states that any harm to Zillow "is completely of its own making" and attacks the basis of the lawsuit as "an unfair and anticompetitive attempt to force homesellers and their agents — by way of injunctive relief from this Court — into marketing their properties on Zillow's platform from the moment they decide to sell."
The portal's refusal to reinstate the nine banned listings at the heart of its feed suspension — and instead lose access to tens of thousands of MRED listings — "makes no business sense, unless it is a litigation strategy designed to manufacture 'irreparable harm,' as is the case here," Compass argues.
MRED 'forced this to happen,' Zillow counters
Zillow refuted the arguments in the May 22 filings, telling Real Estate News via email that "the responses paper over the fact that MRED rewrote its rules to force this to happen, and the MRED CEO made it clear that they would continue to rewrite the rules until they either forced us to abandon our pro-consumer transparency standards and become unwilling participants in Compass' hidden listing scheme, or cut our Chicagoland feed."
"They also ignore — presumably hoping the court doesn't notice — that none of the Compass listings they cut our feed to protect are anywhere near Illinois," the Zillow spokesperson added. "MRED is enforcing Compass' business plan, it's as simple as that."
How we got here
In April 2025, Zillow announced new listing access standards prohibiting listings that had previously been selectively marketed, such as those first listed as "exclusives" via Compass' 3-phased marketing strategy — a move that led Compass to sue Zillow two months later. Compass later dropped its lawsuit.
Last fall, Compass International Holdings Chairman and CEO Robert Reffkin reached out to a number of MLSs in Compass-heavy markets asking them "to terminate Zillow's listing feeds," according to a court filing. MRED President and CEO Rebecca Jensen appeared to agree with Compass' stance, threatening to suspend Zillow's feed, leading the search giant to delay enforcement of its listing standards in the region.
But after MRED opened access to agents nationwide in late April — with Compass as its first brokerage partner — the playing field changed. Jensen emailed Zillow in May warning that MRED would revoke the portal's feed access "if Zillow did not display certain Compass listings nationwide."
Zillow declined to comply, but attempted to prevent the feed suspension through a preliminary injunction on May 18. The portal also reached out to Chicago-area agents and brokers with instructions for setting up a direct listing feed with Zillow.
Those efforts didn't stop MRED from following through on its threat, cutting Zillow's access on May 20. In announcing its decision, MRED said Zillow had violated its licensing agreement, and the MLS was simply enforcing its rules, framing Zillow's lack of compliance as an act of defiance by a company that demanded "the right" to exclude listings "it disfavors."
"Zillow has effectively decided not to display 99.98% of MRED's listings on its platforms because it, in its own judgment, disagrees with the lawful marketing strategy associated with the remaining 0.02% of listings," MRED wrote in a news release.