Court filing made public today shows Zillow has accused Realtor.com operator Move of scraping listing data
Blair Hanley Frank / GeekWire : Thanks: @taylor_soper
Context & Ripple Effects
Two months after the FTC cleared Zillow's $1.8 billion acquisition of Trulia, the freshly consolidated portal is going on offense: a court filing made public today accuses Move, operator of rival Realtor.com, of scraping Zillow's listing data. The suit lands amid an executive-poaching and trade-secrets dispute between the two companies.
The dispute proved expensive on both sides — Zillow's later Q4 results carried $8.1M in ongoing litigation costs against News Corp-owned Move, before the companies ended it with a $130M settlement in mid-2016.
First-order effects
- Move and its parent News Corp now face formal trade-secret claims over scraped listings and poached executives, forcing a costly legal defense at Realtor.com just as Zillow absorbs Trulia and consolidates its lead.
Second-order effects
- The litigation becomes a recurring line item in Zillow's earnings — millions per quarter in legal costs until the $130M settlement converts the dispute into a one-time charge that swells a quarterly net loss.
Third-order effects
- If scraping claims hold up, listing data shifts from freely reusable feed to contested property, pushing every portal toward explicit licensing agreements over MLS-sourced inventory.
The trend: Real estate portals are fighting over who may reuse publicly visible listing data, turning MLS feeds into licensed assets rather than open raw material.