Zillow and Redfin Settle a Federal Rental-Listings Case. The Full Terms Weren't Available at Press Time.

The Federal Trade Commission's proposed settlement would require Redfin to restart the rental-listings advertising business it shut down under its 2025 Zillow partnership, The Verge reported. No duration and no payment are stated in the available materials.

Zillow and Redfin have settled the federal antitrust case over the rental-listings partnership the two companies struck in 2025. The settlement was announced on August 24, 2026, and was first reported by The Verge. How long the settlement's restrictions run, and whether any money changes hands, is not stated in the materials available at press time.

The Federal Trade Commission alleged that Zillow agreed to pay Redfin to syndicate Zillow's listings, the outlet reported. Under the arrangement the agency described, Redfin would end its own advertising contracts and promise not to compete with Zillow for multifamily listings. The Verge summarized the government's theory as an alleged conspiracy to reduce competition in rental listings, leaving fewer options and higher prices.

This is a fight over where apartments get advertised, not over what they rent for. Nothing in the described terms sets a rent, and nothing in them promises an apartment hunter in Los Angeles a different set of listings tomorrow.

The commission's settlement proposal lets Redfin keep syndicating rental listings from Zillow "unencumbered by the anticompetitive restraints" of the original deal, according to the proposal as reported by The Verge. It also requires Redfin to restart the rental-listings advertising business it wound down as part of the partnership.

What that looks like on a screen is narrow. Redfin's rental pages keep carrying Zillow's listings either way. The change the agency describes sits on the advertising side of the business — Redfin selling rental advertising again, rather than staying out of it.

Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said the deal "delivers better, quicker, more certain results for both renters and property management companies than we would have been able to achieve after prevailing at trial."

The attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Washington also agreed to the proposed settlement, the outlet reported. California is not among the five states named in that account.

Announced on August 24, 2026. The document that would enforce it was not available at press time. The Verge's report does not give a term for the conduct restrictions, a commission vote tally, any dissent, or any payment by either company, and it carries no statement from Zillow or Redfin.

The outlet placed the settlement alongside other recent federal antitrust resolutions under the Trump administration, naming the Live Nation-Ticketmaster case and the case against RealPage.

Source: theverge.com, retrieved August 24, 2026.