A federal district court on Friday finalized the settlement and voluntary dismissal with prejudice of
The dismissal by the Arizona court means Zillow Group and Showingtime.com's allegations that a group of MLS entities engaged in antitrust actions by impeding access to the online platform can't be tried again in the same court.
Zillow had alleged that Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc., Multiple Listing Service Inc. and MLS Aligned LLC removed integrations with Showingtime, hurting users' ability to reach real estate agents in the state. Real estate agents have access to MLS listings.
The settlement, in which the MLS members will be able to use both Zillow's platform and a competitor, brings an end to a lawsuit that was closely watched as
"All parties are committed to enhancing the showing experience for their members," plaintiffs and defendants said in a joint statement distributed by Zillow.
The case's origins hearkened back to 2021, according to court documents.
That year, Zillow acquired and began using its real estate scheduling platform for buyer agents. Also in 2021, the defendants and other multiple listing services created MLS Aligned after acquiring technology from Agent Inbox, which became defunct back in 2017.
The plaintiffs had alleged that the defendants then began removing Showingtime integrations that real estate agents could use, even though the platform offered to provide them at no charge. Defendants had argued that their actions did not restrict competition but added to it.
Real estate agents could still theoretically use Showingtime to schedule visits to properties listed on the MLS but the process was cumbersome, according to court documents.
Zillow had shown particular concern about how this affected its Premier Agent customers, who pay for lead management services, noting that they could not access "real time" scheduling without the integration.
"Instead the user would request an appointment (without being able to see availability), which would then go to a Zillow Premier Agent, who then has to manually contact that listing agent to schedule the showing," according to a court filing by the company.
Zillow itself also has faced some antitrust allegations in a separate but also closely-watched lawsuit that the Department of Justice
That case also dates back to 2021, when a discount real estate brokerage called Real Estate Exchange or REX sued the National Association of Realtors, Zillow and several of the latter's subsidiaries.
In that case, REX alleged aspects of Zillow's search feature impeded "transparent access to home inventory." The courts previously had dismissed multiple counts against defendants in that lawsuit, leaving two against Zillow until last September, when a jury trial ended in its favor.
The DOJ said it wanted the case sent back to the lower court to address a particular issue in it, but wasn't taking a position on the matter.
"The United States has a particular interest in ensuring that courts properly apply the concerted-action requirement," the department said in a friend-of-court brief filed in June.
Antitrust law calls upon plaintiffs to prove that such activity between at least two entities, and that it also causes "unreasonable" trade restraint while affecting "interstate or foreign commerce."
The court took "a limited view of when optional association rules can represent concerted action," according to the department.
"Although the district court appeared to recognize that purportedly optional rules could constitute concerted action when they are mandatory in practice, there are additional ways that optional rules constitute concerted action," the DOJ said.
