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Compass International Holdings has filed Code of Ethics complaints against Zillow, the brokerage firm confirmed to HousingWire on Tuesday.
According to a Compass spokesperson the complaints, which allege that Zillow has made false advertising claims, spans 26 states, 55 MLSs and 30 Realtor associations.
“When sellers choose to publicly market their homes and make them available to the broadest possible audience, Zillow is keeping those listings from buyers because they were not initially prioritized on Zillow. In some cases, Zillow is displaying active, publicly available listings as not for sale,” a Compass spokesperson told HousingWire.
“We believe this is false advertising that misleads consumers and keeps buyers from finding homes that sellers have intentionally made available to the market. Sellers should decide how their homes are marketed, and buyers deserve accurate information about what is actually for sale.”
Zillow replied with the following comment: “It’s not surprising that Compass, a defendant in our federal antitrust lawsuit, is looking for additional venues to fight the same battle it’s losing in court.
“Compass’ business model depends on keeping listings off the public market first, so they are the one limiting reach and later wanting Zillow to cover for their scheme. Agents who list publicly from the start reach every buyer on Zillow. When a home is shopped around privately to some buyers and listed to all buyers later, we don’t show that on Zillow because it’s not fair to millions of home buyers without insider connections. That’s not false advertising, it’s standing up for a fair and transparent housing market,” the comment read.
“Zillow’s Listing Access Standards are simple: if you’re marketing a home publicly, market it to everyone. Buyers deserve to see every home for sale, and that’s not something we’re going to compromise on.”
This is not the first time Compass has sought to dismantle Zillow’s listing access standards policy, which the listing portal debuted in April 2025. Under the policy any listing that is publicly marketed for more than one business day prior to being available for display on IDX or VOW feed powered websites is banned from the listing portal. Compass sued Zillow regarding this policy in late June 2025, but dismissed the lawsuit in March 2026.
In addition, Compass is currently a defendant in an antitrust suit filed by Zillow against it and Chicagoland MLS Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), in which the listing portal claims that MRED conspired with Compass to not only expand nationwide, but to cut off its listing feed to Zillow, by updating its IDX display “objective criteria” policy so that Zillow would be in violation of the policy if it enforced its listing access standards policy in the Chicagoland area.
These Code of Ethics complaints come just days after the National Association of Realtors (NAR) published guidance stating that on virtual office websites (VOWs), that in order to support cooperation, fair housing and transparency — and based on prior discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — all active listings in an MLS must be available through a VOW data feed. Zillow, which launched a VOW feed to supplement its IDX feeds last September, would then be in violation of this guidance if it did not display active listings in the VOW feed that violated its listing access standards policy.
