Zillow paid its biggest rival $100 million to stop competing for apartment ads, and now regulators are forcing that rival back into the ring.
Quick Take
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Zillow paid Redfin $100 million in February 2025 to quit competing for rental listing ads.
- A settlement reached in August 2026 cancels the part of the deal that kept Redfin out of the market for up to nine years.
- Redfin must now rebuild its rental ad business with real money and more listings, under court-enforced rules.
- Zillow and Redfin admit no wrongdoing and say their partnership was good for renters all along.
What The FTC Says Happened
The FTC filed suit in September 2025, claiming Zillow and Redfin struck an illegal deal in February 2025. Zillow paid Redfin $100 million, and in return Redfin agreed to shut down its own internet listing service for apartments. The agency says that move wiped out a real competitor in a market already dominated by just a few players.
Zillow and Redfin ran two of the three biggest rental ad networks in the country, with CoStar as the third. Fewer competitors usually means less pressure to keep prices fair and service quality high. The FTC argued this wasn’t a normal business partnership. It was a payoff to make a rival disappear.
Zillow and Redfin pushed back hard. They asked a judge to toss the case, arguing the FTC misunderstood how rental listing markets actually work. They said the two-sided nature of the business, renters on one side, property advertisers on the other, made the FTC’s market definition too simple. A federal judge disagreed. In May 2026, Judge Anthony Trenga ruled the FTC’s claims were solid enough to move forward.
The Settlement And What Changes For Redfin
Rather than go to trial, the companies settled with the FTC and five states in August 2026. The deal keeps the Zillow-Redfin partnership alive, but it erases the piece the FTC hated most: Redfin no longer has to stay out of the rental listing ad market.
Instead, Redfin has to get back in the game. The order requires the company to relaunch with far more apartment listings and to spend real money building it out, enforceable commitments meant to make Redfin stronger than it was before the 2025 deal. Starting in 2027, both companies will also sell standalone multifamily advertising products, giving property managers more choices than a single bundled partnership.
None of this comes with an admission of guilt. Zillow and Redfin settled to end the fight, not because a court found them liable. That distinction matters. Regulators clearly believed their case was strong enough to force changes, but no judge ever ruled on the merits after a full trial.
Two Very Different Stories, One Settlement
Zillow tells this as a win for renters, not a defeat. The company says the partnership “will continue,” listing syndication stays intact across Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, Rent.com and ApartmentGuide, and the settlement simply expands housing options. Redfin, now owned by Rocket Companies, says it can keep the Zillow partnership through at least 2030 while building its own standalone rentals business on the side.
Zillow paid its biggest rival $100M to walk away from the rental-ad market. Prices jumped ~14.5% once Redfin was gone.
Then the segment ripped: Zillow Rentals hit $209M last quarter, +31% YoY, multifamily +42%. That is what a market with no competitor looks like.
Now the FTC is… pic.twitter.com/jrg6TgobTQ
— Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® (@kurtsaltrichter) August 29, 2026
That framing conveniently sidesteps the FTC’s core allegation: that the original $100 million payment was designed to remove a competitor, not to expand choice. A settlement that forces Redfin back into a market it was paid to leave doesn’t sound like validation of a “procompetitive” partnership. It sounds like a correction.
Still, real questions remain unanswered. Nobody has produced public numbers showing how much rent prices actually rose because of the original deal, or whether Redfin’s rental unit was thriving before the payoff. The settlement restores competition on paper. Whether renters see real relief in their wallets depends on how seriously Redfin rebuilds and how closely the FTC watches to make sure it does.
For now, conservatives who care about free markets should welcome this outcome. Big companies paying rivals to vanish isn’t competition, it’s collusion dressed up in partnership language. Forcing Redfin back to the table restores the kind of rivalry that keeps prices honest, which is exactly what antitrust law is supposed to protect.
Sources:
redstate.com, ftc.gov, cnbc.com, multifamilydive.com, zillow.com