While Chicago-based federal Judge John Tharp, Jr. did order Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) to restore its listing feeds to Zillow on Friday, amid the listing portal giant’s antitrust lawsuit against the Chicagoland MLS and Compass International Holdings, Zillow’s Chicagoland listings may still be at risk.
The order partially granted Zillow’s motion for a temporary restraining order against MRED, while also requiring Zillow to include the nine MRED listings it had previously removed from its portal as well as any listings that were in the MLS’s system as of May 21 in its listing display. Moving forward, the judge also ruled that Zillow may not ban listings within ZIP codes nationwide where MRED has had listings between April 2025 and April 2026. But, that order is exactly what it says: temporary.
According to the ruling, the temporary restraining order is set to expire 14 days from May 22, meaning that after that date, either party could potentially choose to resume the behaviors banned in the order if they so choose. However, in a ruling on Tuesday, Judge Tharp granted the parties’ motion for expedited discovery regarding Zillow’s preliminary injunction motion and set a schedule for the discovery as well as the hearing regarding Zillow’s motion.
Preliminary injunction
Similar to Zillow’s temporary restraining order, the preliminary injunction motion asks the court to prevent MRED from suspending its listing feed. The motion was filed the same day MRED notified Zillow that the MLS would suspend its listing feeds unless it cured what the MLS called a “material breach of its license agreements.”
According to the minute entry on the court docket, the parties have until Friday to file their document and interrogation requests. However, the entry notes that only two information custodians per party can be served interrogation requests. The following Friday, the parties must file their document production and responses to written discovery, with depositions of the custodians needing to be completed by June 12, while expert depositions need to be completed by June 22.
From there, the court has set aside July 1 and 2 for the hearing on the motion, with post-hearing briefs on the hearing due by July 9 and replies due on July 13.
In addition, Judge Tharp also noted that Zillow must respond to MRED’s motion to compel arbitration by June 25, with MRED’s reply due on June 29. MRED filed its motion to compel arbitration last week, claiming that in the licensing agreement Zillow signed for access to the data feeds, it agreed to arbitration in regard to any disputes.
For a preliminary injunction to be awarded, parties typically must show that they are reasonably likely to win the underlying lawsuit, will suffer harm that cannot be adequately fixed later with money damages alone if the injunction is not granted and that granting the injunction would be in the best interest of the public.
Zillow responds
In an emailed statement, a Zillow spokesperson noted that “the court already ordered MRED to restore our listing feed.”
“We look forward to continuing to show how MRED and Compass colluded to harm not just Zillow but every home buyer and seller who uses Zillow to access the housing market in Chicagoland,” the spokesperson added.
Compass did not wish to comment and MRED did not return HousingWire’s request for comment.
