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Compass is seeking information from one of the co-founders of Zillow, Lloyd Frink, in its attempt to block Zillow’s listing standards policy, which bans listings that have been publicly marketed for more than one business day before being entered into the MLS, from being enforced.
Compass is arguing that Frink, who co-founded Zillow alongside Rich Barton, has information related to Zillow’s listing standards policy “that no other witness can provide.” Zillow disagrees with this claim, pushing back against it in a motion filed on Friday.
Compass has requested to depose Frink for four hours on Sept. 24. For its part, Compass said that Frink “has unique and important information that no other witness can provide,” and that he can speak “directly to Zillow’s economic and strategic incentives to conspire and adopt,” its listing access standards.
Frink was at Zillow/Compass meeting
The filing includes excerpts of depositions, through which we learn that Compass and Zillow executives met on April 1, a little over a week before Zillow announced its policy. The meeting was requested by Compass CEO Robert Reffkin. According to the deposition of Zillow’s chief industry development officer Errol Samuelson, conducted at the end of August, Frink attended this meeting and his presence was meant to “demonstrate to Compass how serious [Zillow was] about trying to find a solution.”
Samuelson stated that he hoped the meeting would “encourage Compass to support listing transparency.” Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer added in his deposition that Zillow was hoping to create a “broader national partnership” with Compass.
According to Compass, Frink was “integral” to these negotiations. However, Zillow argues that Compass has already deposed three executives who attended the April 1 meeting, and that the brokerage has not shown that Frink possesses information related to Compass’s motion for a preliminary injunction. The filing notes that unlike other Zillow executives, Frink has not been involved in continued negotiations and discussions with Compass.
Zillow pushes back
Zillow contends that deposing Frink is unnecessary and Compass’s desire to do so lays bare the plaintiff’s “apparent effort to harass Zillow by deposing yet another senior executive.”
In addition to pushing back against Compass’s claim about Frick, Zillow also asked the court if portions of some of the documents filed in the case could be redacted. According to Zillow, if some of the information is publicly available, it could cause Zillow “competitive harm.” If the court grants this request, part of a document titled “Post Clear Cooperation Strategy,” which Zillow claims contains its “detailed and confidential response strategy for several possible business scenarios,” would be redacted. The motion adds that Compass is not opposed to this request.
Additionally, Zillow has also asked the court if it can seal documents containing its “views on its relations with other participants in the real estate industry,” as it feels public knowledge of this “would allow other market participants to adapt their behavior in responding to Zillow, including in commercial negotiations.”
Filed in mid-June, in the suit Compass has claimed that Zillow’s policy will cause it “irreparable harm,” as it prevents listings marketed under Compass’s three-phase marketing strategy from being displayed on Zillow. Just days before the policy was set to go into effect on June 30, Compass filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would prevent Zillow from enforcing its policy. The two parties are currently in discovery for a hearing on this motion, which is slated to begin in November.
As of late August, Compass’s private exclusive listings database had over 9,000 listings nationwide, according to an analysis by real estate industry technology strategist Mike DelPrete. However, DelPrete says that after his report, “that metric rapidly swung to an average drop of 0.8% per day, a full 1.5% change and the largest observable swing since I began tracking this data in July 2024.”
