This article has been updated to include quotes from Joe Moshé of Charles Rutenberg Realty.
By Hank Russell
New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced they have what they said was a violation of antitrust laws when two leading national real estate firms made an unlawful agreement in which one would shut down its online listings.
In February 2025, Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to take down its internet listing services (ILS), exclusively repost apartment listings provided by Zillow, transition its customers to Zillow and stay out of the ILS market for up to nine years.
At the time, Zillow and Redfin operated two of the nation’s largest rental ILS networks. Zillow controlled Zillow Rentals, Trulia and HotPads and Redfin operated Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com. The FTC alleged the arrangement was an end run around competition that insulated Zillow from competing head-to-head on the merits with Redfin and further concentrated an already condensed market.
On August 24, 2026, the FTC filed a stipulated final order for equitable relief, which stated that both sides “have reached an agreement to resolve this case through settlement, and without trial or final adjudication … to resolve all matters in dispute in this action.”
In October 2025, James, along with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the states of New York, Arizona, Connecticut and Washington, also filed a lawsuit against both companies together with the FTC complaint.
The order also requires Redfin to reenter the ILS market with far more apartment listings and to make enforceable commitments to invest millions of dollars to ensure Redfin will be a far stronger competitor than it was before the 2025 agreement. Restoring competition in the ILS market is expected to drive down costs and spur innovation that benefits renters and property management companies.
“This kind of payment to a competitor to exit a market and stop competing violates the antitrust laws,” said Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “This settlement delivers better, quicker, more certain results for both renters and property management companies than we would have been able to achieve after prevailing at trial, including firm and enforceable commitments by Redfin to relaunch its rentals advertising business.”
“Online rental listing platforms are critical tools that New Yorkers rely on to find affordable homes,” James added. “Zillow and Redfin’s illegal agreement to stop competing threatened to raise costs for both renters and landlords and make it harder for New Yorkers to find a place to live. After we took action to enforce the law, Zillow and Redfin will continue to compete and invest in improving their services.”
Zillow issued a press release telling its customers that its syndication agreement with Redfin will continue. According to Zillow, since the partnership began, multifamily properties on Redfin’s websites nearly quadrupled and multifamily properties on Zillow’s websites grew almost 40%.
“This means renters are getting access to more inventory in more places and housing providers in the category are filling vacancies faster and at lower customer acquisition costs,” Zillow said in a statement. “Many property managers tell us, for the first time in years, they now have a real substantive alternative to the most expensive options in the market.”
Further, Zillow said it had 2.8 million average monthly active rental listings in the second quarter of this year (April-June 2026), which is the most in the category and an all-time high of 79,000 multifamily properties. Rentals revenue was up 31% year over year in the same three-month period, with multifamily revenue up 42%.
“By syndicating multifamily listings across platforms, we can get more properties in front of more renters — wherever they happen to be searching,” Zillow said.
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to Redfin for comment, but did not hear back as of press time.