Attorney General Mayes Sues Zillow and Redfin for Anticompetitive Agreement that Could Make Rent Prices Even Higher

PHOENIX – Attorney General Kris Mayes today joined four other states in close collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission in suing Zillow and Redfin over a $100 million anticompetitive agreement between the two rental housing listing sites that hands Zillow unfair dominance in the market and the potential to push rental prices even higher for Arizona families.   

“Arizonans are already facing an astronomical cost of living – and now these massive companies want to create an unfair advantage in the market which will allow them to skyrocket costs for landlords, who will use it as an excuse to charge even more money for rent,” said Attorney General Mayes. “We can’t just sit by and allow costs to go up and up and up. I’m proud to join 4 other states to stop Zillow and Redfin’s anticompetitive agreement. We have strong antitrust laws that allow us to protective our competitive, free, and fair economy, and we need to enforce them.”    

Listing sites like Zillow are typically free for renters and for landlords offering single-family homes or units in smaller multi-family buildings. For larger rental portfolios managed by Property Management Companies on behalf of owners and investors, Internet Listing Service (ILS) providers like Zillow charge a fee to post. They also charge for advertising on their sites.   

Over the past decade, the ILS industry has undergone substantial consolidation, with Zillow already acquiring competitors HotPad and Trulia. Meanwhile Redfin acquired similar websites and mobile apps, including Rent.com, Apartmentguide.com, and others. Competitor CoStar grew its presence by acquiring Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com and ForRent. Prior to February 2025, Zillow, CoStar and Redfin had most recently accounted for 85 percent of revenue for ILSs nationwide. Zillow touts that it has “the largest audience of renters on the market” and is the “most searched rentals marketplace.” With its market leader status secured, Zillow has recently told investors that it intends to focus on “scaling revenue across the marketplace.”   

An agreement between Zillow and Redfin further consolidates the market. On February 6, 2025, Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to exit the ILS market for multifamily properties. As part of the agreement, Redfin’s rental listing site, Rent.com and Redfin’s other sites remain active, but as nothing more than a mirror of Zillow’s listings. Under the partnership agreement, Redfin agrees to stay out of the multifamily advertising market and to use Zillow as its exclusive provider of rental listings. Redfin will further introduce Zillow sales representatives to their multifamily advertising customers, and turn over an array of competitively sensitive information. Redfin agreed to terminate all contracts with its multifamily customers, and make Zillow the exclusive provider of multifamily apartment listings for its network of websites. Redfin has agreed not to compete with Zillow on multifamily rental property postings for up to 9 years.  

The complaint filed today alleges that the agreement between Zillow and Redfin violates Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1 (illegal agreement in restraint of trade) and Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 18 (illegal acquisition that substantially lessens competition). The complaint alleges that the agreement substantially lessens competition in the ILS market on both price and quality, and that absent competition from Redfin, it is likely that rental listing prices will rise and quality of the sites will fall, ultimately leading to higher rent and transaction fees for renters.   

Attorney General Mayes is joined in the complaint by the Attorneys General of Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and Washington.  

“Rent is completely unaffordable right now, and this deal is going to make things worse. This unfair and anticompetitive agreement between listing giants Zillow and Redfin will jack up costs for property managers, who will pass those costs on to renters. Today’s action follows our antitrust case against RealPage and mega landlords over unfair algorithmic pricing schemes. We’re going to continue to use every inch of our joint state and federal law enforcement authority to give families a fair shot at an affordable home,” said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, co-plaintiff along with AG Mayes.   

Today’s lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin is the second antitrust action taken by the Attorney General to address unaffordable rental costs. In February 2024, Attorney General Mayes filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage and several landlord defendants for an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing related to commercial revenue management software that landlords use to price apartments using competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms. That case remains pending.     

A copy of the complaint is available here.