Washington, D.C. – Following a recent suit from the Federal Trade Commission against Zillow and Redfin over their $100 million agreement to eliminate competition in the nationwide rental internet listing service market, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement. 

“It’s good to see signs of life from an agency that has initiated few antitrust cases this year, while controversially abandoning others. Zillow’s $100 million payment to Redfin was not a ‘partnership — as their own agreement acknowledges — but collusion tantamount to a merger, in plain violation of our antitrust laws,” said Laurel Kilgour, Research Manager at the American Economic Liberties Project. “With just three companies controlling more than 85 percent of this market, eliminating one of them through a pay-to-quit scheme is a textbook example of anticompetitive behavior. While it’s encouraging to see the FTC bring this case, it must learn from past mistakes — including a failure to challenge Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin earlier this year despite Congressional concerns — and move decisively to block future deals that would further entrench monopoly power in housing.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, Zillow and Redfin signed two agreements in February 2025 under which Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to shut down its multifamily rental advertising business. Redfin agreed to terminate all customer contracts — even if property managers declined to move to Zillow — and to remove listings from its sites. Redfin fired 450 people– nearly its entire sales team– almost immediately after inking the deal and agreed to assist Zillow in hiring some of those employees, while transferring customer relationships and sensitive data. In return, Redfin promised not to compete in the multifamily rental ads market for up to nine years, instead syndicating Zillow’s listings on its own sites. The FTC argues that this scheme eliminated head-to-head competition between two of only three national players, in violation of the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and Section 5 of the FTC Act. The agency is seeking a permanent injunction and structural relief to restore competition.

Meanwhile, Congressional concerns about Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin have already been borne out through layoffs of 2% of their workforce.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.