One Company Paid Off Another To Leave Market. Settlement With Gov’t Could Be Huge Win For Housing Prices

Interesting federal trade commission, ftc, housing, real estate, settlement admin August 25, 2026 0 Comments

One Company Paid Off Another To Leave Market. Settlement With Gov’t Could Be Huge Win For Housing Prices

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement Monday with online real estate companies Zillow and Redfin over allegations that the two companies struck a deal to reduce competition in the rental-listing market.

Under the February 2025 deal, Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to stop selling its own ads for large apartment buildings. Redfin agreed to instead send those customers to Zillow and show Zillow’s rental listings on its sites. Redfin also agreed not to compete with Zillow in that market for up to nine years, according to the FTC.

Under a February 2025 agreement, Zillow allegedly agreed to pay Redfin $100 million, along with additional fees each time a prospective renter expressed interest in a property through Redfin, according to CNBC. In exchange, Redfin agreed to stop competing with Zillow in that part of the rental-listing business for up to nine years and instead send customers to Zillow, the FTC said in a Monday press release.

The FTC said the agreement reduced competition and drove up prices for landlords advertising rental properties online. On average, Zillow customers paid 14.5 percent more to advertise an apartment listing, and some landlords stopped purchasing online listings altogether because of the higher costs. New York, Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington State joined the FTC in the lawsuit, CNBC reported.

The FTC reached a settlement with the two online real estate companies ahead of a trial that was slated to begin Monday. Redfin can display Zillow advertisements on its websites, but will resume its own rental advertisement business within six months under the terms of the settlement, according to the FTC. The partnership between the two companies will continue through 2030.

Michael Sherman, a Zillow rentals executive, said the settlement “enables us to keep our energy on innovating for renters and property managers,” per CNBC.

Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, offered a similar sentiment in an FTC press release.

“Today’s settlement unwinds an agreement under which Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to stop competing and hand off all its customers to Zillow,” Guarnera said.

“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,” he said. “Today’s great result delivers on the Trump-Vance FTC’s commitment to make sure Americans benefit from competition in markets for housing and the products and services Americans use to find their homes.” (RELATED: New Report Shows Just How Bad The Housing Crisis Is)

The FTC sued the two online real estate companies in September 2025, claiming their partnership would lead to higher rental prices and reduced competition. In addition, the FTC said the partnership violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which “prohibits mergers and acquisitions where in any line of commerce or in any activity affecting commerce in any section of the country, the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly,” according to the Department of Justice’s website.

Antitrust laws are designed to protect consumers by ensuring businesses operate efficiently and keep prices down, the FTC’s website indicates.