A widely used industry provider of lead generation, technology and mortgage lending is suing two multiple listing services and a related entity in an Arizona federal district court for allegedly cutting off access to an online real estate scheduling platform.
Zillow Group and ShowingTime.com’s legal complaint against Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc., Multiple Listing Service Inc. and MLS Aligned LLC alleges the defendants have violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and engaged in a “conspiracy to monopolize.”
The lawsuit, first reported on by Law360, is in line with broader indications that challenges to established real estate sales models and related pushback are mounting, potentially changing the dynamics of the housing finance market.
With the market in flux and other recent developments calling into question buyer fees, online real estate platforms are seeking to protect their competitive position by ensuring they can offer their clients essential services.
“It makes sense that all the portals are thinking through their strategies,” said Rick Sharga, founder and CEO at CJ Patrick, a market intelligence and business advisory service firm.
Zillow said in court documents it has offered to keep ShowingTime embedded in the multiple listing services for free, so its importance is likely less related to directly generating revenue than as an additional impetus to use its broader services, including mortgage lending.
Buyer agents use ShowingTime to schedule visits to houses with those who represent sellers through the MLS, a function that’s central to the ability to compete for homes, court documents indicate.
The lawsuit challenges actions the defendants have taken to make it more difficult for real estate professionals, who are stakeholders in multiple listing services, to use the ShowingTime platform in deference to their own competing platform, Aligned Showings.
In 2021, the same year Zillow acquired ShowingTime, the defendants and other multiple listing services created MLS Aligned. Technology they acquired from Agent Inbox, a platform that became defunct in 2017, rebranded and relaunched in 2023 as Aligned Showings.
Defendants subsequently “began to remove integration for the ShowingTime platform from their member portals (or announce the removal of the integration was imminent),” the complaint alleges.
“By making Aligned Showings the only integrated option on the MLS member portal, the MLS defendants are substantially foreclosing ShowingTime from their markets and giving Aligned Showings a monopoly,” the suit claims.
Zillow shows particular concern about phasing out access to ShowingTime affects its Premier Agents, who pay for lead management services.
“When MLS defendants degrade ShowingTime’s functionality, Zillow will no longer be able to provide ‘real time’ showing scheduling to prospective homebuyers,” the complaint says. “Instead the user would request an appointment (without being able to see availability), which would then go to a Zillow Premier Agent, who then has to manually contact that listing agent to schedule the showing, introducing significant delay.”
The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief that “enjoins and restrains defendants from continuing their unlawful acts in violation of the Sherman Act,” compensatory and trebled damages under the Clayton Antitrust Act, and attorney costs and fees.
