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Compass filed the lawsuit last summer and asked the court to stop Zillow from enforcing its Listing Access Standards. In a Friday ruling, the judge said Compass “has not shown a likelihood of success.”

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A judge on Friday denied Compass’ request to stop Zillow from enforcing its ban on listings that are marketed publicly but aren’t shared on the multiple listing service and available to the portal within a day.

Compass, the judge said, had not demonstrated a likelihood to win the case.

The ruling came in response to Compass’ request for a preliminary injunction on the policy, and it is not considered a final judgment — meaning litigation in the brokerage’s lawsuit against the portal can continue.

But the order undercut several arguments made by Compass that were key to the case, including that Zillow colluded with Redfin in announcing a similar policy and that Zillow was a monopoly in the marketplace.

“Because Plaintiff has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits, Plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction is denied,” Judge Jeannette Vargas wrote in her ruling. Compass is the plaintiff in the case.

At the center of the case is Compass’ 3-Phased Marketing Strategy (3PM), which starts a listing in a Private status that is off the MLS and available through a Compass agent. If left unsold, the listing then moves on to become a Coming Soon listing before eventually ending up on the MLS.

Zillow’s policy was an effort to stamp out a rise in such private listing networks. Those networks were growing in popularity early last year before the portal announced its plan to ban listings for their duration on the market if they were advertised for more than a day in a way that Zillow deemed “public.”

Vargas said that homesellers were free to continue to use Compass’ 3PM strategy, despite the Zillow policy.

“Indeed, home sellers can still choose to list properties for sale through premarketing strategies like 3PM albeit at the cost of foregoing exposure for those listings on Zillow,” she wrote.

The lawsuit is a battle between two of the largest companies in residential real estate over how for-sale listings are marketed.

Compass filed the lawsuit last summer and asked the court to stop Zillow from enforcing its policy. The two companies have continued to trade barbs ever since, including just this week when their respective executives appeared on stage at Inman Connect New York.

Zillow said on Friday that the ruling was a win for consumers.

“Today’s ruling is a clear victory not just for Zillow, but for consumers, agents, brokerages and the real estate industry at large,” a Zillow spokesperson said in a statement. “Zillow believes everyone deserves equal access to the same real estate information at the same time. Compass does the opposite — hiding listings away in its private vault, harming consumers and small businesses to benefit itself.”

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said that the ruling wasn’t a loss and that it would continue to fight.

“Today’s decision is not a loss, and our lawsuit continues forward,” Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said in a statement. “In Zillow’s internal strategy document, Zillow said Zillow will ‘punish the agent for choosing to put their listings on alternative networks.’ With agents being our clients, we have an obligation to protect our agents from Zillow, which explicitly stated they are trying to ‘punish the agent.'”

Email Taylor Anderson

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