Zillow is facing another antitrust lawsuit, this time from a real estate agent who described the company's efforts to steer homebuyers to its allegedly less competitive mortgage business. 

Stephanie Dupuis, an agent with a team based across the Puget Sound from the Seattle real estate listing giant, filed her class action last week in a Washington federal court. The complaint echoes earlier claims from Araba Armstrong, an Alaska homebuyer who accused Zillow of violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act in steering prospective borrowers to Zillow Home Loans. 

Zillow, which is also under fire from rival Compass and the Federal Trade Commission for separate alleged anticompetitive activity, has not filed a legal response to the accusations regarding ZHL and its Premier Agent and Preferred programs. That home loan business, launched in 2018, continued to grow in the third quarter despite larger market woes and generated $1.3 billion in loan volume over the last-reported period.

The new complaint also takes aim at Zillow's compensation structure, in which agents in the Preferred program share up to 40% of their commission on sold homes with the company. 

"Zillow is illegally tying its lending services to the client referral services it offers real estate agents," wrote attorneys for Dupuis. "But it is also flexing its monopoly power to overcharge for those services in the first place."

A Zillow spokesperson Thursday refuted the claims, calling the complaint one-sided and stating the company's business is consistent with industry practices. 

"Consumers are always in control of which agent and lender they work with, and Zillow supports agents who deliver strong outcomes for buyers by sharing clear information and helping them understand what they can afford," the spokesperson said. 

An attorney for Dupuis declined to comment Thursday.

How agents work with Zillow

Premier or Preferred agents aren't required to refer clients to ZHL, the complaint explained. Agents in Premier pay upfront for each lead, while Preferred is an invite-only program in which agents, in return for stronger leads, share their commissions with the company. 

Zillow tracks customers' preapprovals with ZHL in its Follow Up Boss customer relationship management platform, and grades agents based on that volume, Dupuis said. A higher rating garners more referrals, while a lower rating puts agents at risk of getting cut from the programs, the lawsuit claimed. 

Zillow "only cares about ZHL"

Dupuis said she's worked with Zillow since 2014, and became a Preferred agent in 2022. She claimed the company began pressuring agents to steer clients to ZHL last May, and also pushed them to sign up for the FUB platform or be kicked out of the lead programs. 

"Dupuis, like many other agents, is opposed to steering clients to ZHL," the complaint read.

Zillow began penalizing Dupuis and her team in FUB for their low ZHL preapproval rates and told them it was capping their referrals based on their rating. A Zillow representative last August also allegedly told Dupuis that the company "only cares about ZHL, not Flex," referring to the Preferred program by its former name. 

The agent claims Zillow reduced her referrals in October. Her complaint includes screenshots of her team's declining FUB rating and an email from a representative clarifying her waning ratings were based on a lack of ZHL preapprovals.

A Zillow spokesperson Thursday said Zillow Preferred participants aren't measured or rewarded based on whether a buyer finances with ZHL. 

The lawsuit also references media reports describing ZHL's purported higher origination fees and lack of loan products. Armstrong, the consumer who sued Zillow last November, raised similar arguments about ZHL's quality and claimed she was steered by Zillow away from programs which offer closing cost assistance.

In other litigation, Zillow is fighting a motion for a preliminary injunction by Compass in the fight for the way homes are listed. The company has also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit from the FTC, over Zillow's allegedly illegal agreement with Redfin to suppress rental advertising competition.