Compass Inc. lost a bid to temporarily block a Zillow Group Inc. ban on listings that have been advertised elsewhere first, after a judge ruled in favor of the home-search site in its legal battle with the largest US real estate brokerage. 

US District Judge Jeannette Vargas on Friday denied a request by Compass for a preliminary halt to Zillow's policy, court records show. That means the most widely used home-search site can continue to block certain listings while the antitrust lawsuit Compass filed in June proceeds.

READ MORE: Home-sale cancellations hit record as buyers walk away

The ruling is a major blow for Compass, which has sought to build a private listings network and encouraged sellers to market properties with its own agents before posting them on public platforms that have become the industry standard. The brokerage alleges Zillow uses "anticompetitive tactics" to bar listings that haven't been posted to a local multiple-listing service, or MLS, within 24 hours of them being publicly marketed. 

But the judge rejected that claim, saying Compass had failed to show a likelihood that Zillow engaged in anticompetitive behavior. In her ruling, she said "Compass has not provided sufficient evidence from which it can be inferred that Zillow has monopoly power in the online home search market."

Representatives for Compass and Zillow didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the ruling.

The legal fight is just the latest battle in a broader industry feud over how homes are marketed and sold.

The National Association of Realtors, a trade group representing more than 1.5 million agents, in 2019 instituted a controversial policy requiring agents to list homes on local MLS networks within 24 hours. The policy limits so-called "pocket" or "whisper listings," which critics say harm buyers while making it more difficult for sellers to maximize profits. 

Opponents of the policy say the rule takes control of the process of buying and selling homes out of the hands of consumers and results in properties being listed with information that makes it harder for them to be sold, such as the number of days they have been on the market. 

The NAR in March 2025 updated the policy, allowing individual MLSs to set the rules when sellers want to limit marketing of certain properties. The following month, Zillow instituted its new policy, the Zillow Listings Access Standards, which included the site's refusal to show homes that had already been marketed privately.  

In late November, Compass and Zillow argued their cases before Vargas during a four-day hearing that featured testimony from company officials including Compass Chief Executive Officer Robert Reffkin and Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman.

READ MORE: The hottest housing markets in 2026

Reffkin said that agents — like his own mother — are being "intimidated" and "bullied" by Zillow and fearful they will lose their commissions. The ban is "taking a choice away from sellers," who are also consumers also, he testified. 

"There should be dozens of ways to sell a home," Reffkin said. "Let agents be creative and market homes that meet their client's need, not in a one-size-fits-all way so that platforms can make money monetizing their home's listing."

But Wacksman said private listing networks are "really bad for everybody" because buyers can't see all the homes that are available, sellers will unload properties for less if they aren't marketed broadly and agents can't do their jobs effectively without access to a full range of inventory.

"We saw a world where the cooperation around listings and the transparent access to all listings was going to go away or rapidly erode," Wacksman said. "We saw if companies like Compass were holding their inventory back from their marketplace, the people they were cooperating with, it was going to create pressure for other brokerages to do the same."

The case is Compass v. Zillow, 25-cv-05201, US District Court, Southern District of New York.