Zillow and Redfin settle FTC antitrust case over their rental listings partnership

The Federal Trade Commission and Zillow have reached a settlement in the antitrust case over a 2025 partnership between Zillow and Redfin, resolving allegations that the two companies conspired to reduce competition in the rental listings market. The FTC had accused Zillow of paying Redfin to syndicate its listings while Redfin agreed to end its own advertising contracts and promised not to compete with Zillow for multifamily rental listings. That arrangement, according to the regulators, left renters with fewer options and higher prices.

The proposed settlement allows Redfin to continue syndicating rental listings from Zillow without the anticompetitive restrictions in the original deal. It also requires Redfin to restart its own rental listings advertising business, which it had wound down as part of the partnership. State attorneys general from Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and Washington have also agreed to the proposed settlement.

Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said the settlement delivers better, quicker, and more certain results for renters and property management companies than the agency would have achieved by prevailing at trial. The deal ends the case without a court ruling on the merits of the allegations.

This settlement follows other recent actions by the Trump administration in high-profile corporate behavior cases, including the Live Nation-Ticketmaster case and its case against RealPage. Those cases, like the Zillow-Redfin matter, centered on allegations of anticompetitive practices affecting U.S. consumers.

For renters in the U.S., the settlement is significant because it aims to restore competition in the online rental listings space, which had been consolidated through the Zillow-Redfin deal. The requirement that Redfin resume its own advertising business is central to that effort, as it reintroduces a competitor in the market for multifamily rental listings. Property management companies, which rely on these platforms to reach tenants, are also directly affected by the terms of the settlement.

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