New York · Ars Technica
Hidden Zillow listings rolled out fake supply shock, raising NYC rents, suit confirms
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This week, two New York City renters filed a class action complaint alleging that a brokerage business called Compass—which has been boycotting posting listings on free digital platforms like Zillow —has now delisted so many rental units that it has created a fake supply shock that is artificially raising rents.
Summary
This week, two New York City renters filed a class action complaint alleging that a brokerage business called Compass—which has been boycotting posting listings on free digital platforms like Zillow a ‘threshold economists classify as unaffordable’—and prices continue to rise, making the dream of living in New York City ever more out of reach,” renters argued. They alleged that there is no procompetitive benefit for Compass to hide listings and noted that Compass’ alleged anticompetitive conduct also hurts the labor market by depriving other non-Compass brokers of commissions. “This not only deprives Zillow of the ability to feed a significant amount of rental unit listings to prospective renters and drives Zillow’s profitability into the ground, but it forces renters to pay brokers fees to Compass and only Compass when those renters ordinarily would not pay any brokers fee at all or, alternatively, would have had real estate agents from competitor firms who would split commission-based fees with Compass,” renters argued.