Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) has suspended listing data feeds to Zillow Group after the portal allegedly refused to cure what the MLS calls a “material breach” of its license agreements, the company announced Wednesday.
The suspension means Zillow no longer has access to MRED’s licensed listing data for display on consumer sites including Zillow.com and Trulia.com, according to the announcement. The MLS has asked Zillow to remove listings from their websites that Zillow no longer has a license to display. If Zillow continues to display MRED’s listings, MRED said the portal would be in violation of Zillow’s license agreement and federal copyright law.
MRED, based in Lisle, Illinois, is the multiple listing service that covers much of the Chicago area and surrounding Midwest markets and handles about 250,000 new listings annually. In late April, MRED also announced that it was opening its MLS and its private listing network to brokers and agents nationwide.
MRED said the conflict centers on Zillow’s selective removal of nine listings that the MLS maintains are being marketed lawfully under its rules. According to the announcement, Zillow’s stance prompted MRED to shut off a feed covering roughly 43,000 active listings, or 99.98% of the MLS’s inventory, from the portal’s consumer-facing platforms.
“Rules enforcement is the most important and difficult responsibility an MLS undertakes on behalf of the cooperative marketplace,” Rebecca Jensen, president and CEO of MRED, said in the announcement. “Our rules apply equally to every participant, and we have a duty to educate our participants and vendors, counsel them when they are out of compliance and require that breaches be cured.”
MRED notified Zillow to fix the issue
MRED said it notified Zillow two weeks ago that selectively excluding listings from participating brokers violated Zillow’s license agreements with the MLS. MRED gave Zillow until 11:59 p.m. Central time on May 19, 2026, to fix the issue. Zillow did not do so, the MLS said.
MRED stressed that the suspension is limited to Zillow’s right to publicly display licensed MRED listing data. Zillow’s broker and agent licensees can still access MRED services to input listings and facilitate transactions through the MLS systems, according to the announcement.
Zillow-owned software products used by brokers and agents, including ShowingTime and dotloop, are not affected at this time, MRED said.
MRED said its listings will remain broadly distributed across other consumer sites, allowing sellers to keep “significant exposure” for their properties and buyers to maintain access to a wide range of homes for sale.
The MLS framed its action as part of a broader commitment to “protecting the integrity of the cooperative marketplace” and enforcing rules consistently across participants and vendors.
Lawsuits filed
Last week, Zillow filed an antitrust lawsuit against MRED and Compass, accusing the two defendants of conspiring to threaten Zillow’s access to the Chicagoland listing feed unless the portal agreed to display Compass private listings across the United States.
MRED said it views the lawsuit as Zillow seeking the right to exclude the nine disputed listings while maintaining access to the broader MRED data set. MRED characterized Zillow’s claimed harm as “self-inflicted” and said the portal could restore access to MRED data by returning to compliance with long-standing license terms.
In the release, MRED said Zillow argued that the excluded listings are “stale” and inconsistent with its “brand promise” unless sellers terminate their existing listing broker and hire another firm whose marketing practices Zillow prefers. MRED framed that position as an effort by Zillow to impose its own rules on listings that comply with MLS policies and seller instructions.
On Monday, Zillow filed a motion for a preliminary injunction asking the court to prevent MRED from terminating its listing access while its antitrust lawsuit proceeds. As of Wednesday morning the court has not ruled on Zillow’s motion, however, MRED filed a motion to compel arbitration, as the MLS claims that in the licensing agreement Zillow signed for access to these data feeds, it agreed to arbitration in regard to any disputes.
In an emailed statement, a Zillow spokesperson told HousingWire that MRED’s decision to pull its listing data feeds means that “Chicagoland home buyers and sellers have far worse access to the housing market than they had yesterday, because their local MLS decided one megabrokerage’s profits mattered more than their ability to achieve the American Dream.”
“The people paying the price today are real. Sellers who listed their homes expecting to reach every buyer on Zillow. Buyers who just want to see every home available to them,” the spokesperson wrote. “Thousands of independent agents who had no voice in this decision and nothing to gain from it. MRED sacrificed them all to protect the hidden listing scheme of the largest brokerage in the country.”
The spokesperson added that “MRED and Compass have colluded to turn back the clock on consumer transparency” and “engineering a market that extracts more from buyers and sellers so Compass can pocket more on every deal.” In addition, the spokesperson claimed that MRED was seeking to compel arbitration so it would not have to “defend its conspiracy in court.”
“This isn’t a disagreement over rules; it’s an antitrust case. MRED should have to answer for its illegal actions in a court of law,” the spokesperson added.
This article was written by Brooklee Han and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation. It was reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication. The system helps convert company announcements and industry data into HousingWire-style news coverage.
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