Against the backdrop of an ongoing struggle for supremacy in the consumer real estate portal space, Homes.com’s parent company on Wednesday sued rival Zillow for what it described as “systematic infringement of CoStar’s copyrighted photographs.”
In CoStar’s complaint, filed in federal court in New York state, the company said Zillow is displaying nearly 46,000 CoStar-copyrighted images on Zillow Rentals. Many of the images, CoStar claims, still have the CoStar watermark and have been displayed more than 250,000 times on Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com rental listings, as a result of the portals’ listing syndication agreements.
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Andy Florance | Credit: CoStar Group
“Zillow’s theft of tens of thousands of CoStar Group’s copyrighted photographs is nothing short of outrageous,” CoStar CEO Andy Florance said in a prepared statement. “Zillow is profiting from decades of CoStar Group work and the billions of dollars we have invested.
“Even worse, Zillow is magnifying its infringement on Redfin and Realtor.com. If these other sites do not immediately remove our images, we will have no choice but to sue them as well. We are committed to stopping this systematic infringement and holding the wrongdoers to account.”
Realtor.com and Redfin declined to comment on the complaint, and Inman is awaiting a response from Zillow.
In court documents, CoStar said there isn’t a multiple listing service (MLS) for rental listings where information and images can be easily distributed to multiple sites. As a result, the company said multiple competitors have relied on CoStar, which owns Apartments.com, to gain access to listing photos for multifamily and single-family listings.
CoStar claims Zillow Rentals has used CoStar-copyrighted images to attract new customers and advertisers by building webpages for properties not actively listed. Once the webpage is live, CoStar said, Zillow invites property owners and managers to claim the listing and potentially sign up for one of four advertising packages, which range from “basic” to “signature.”
The company provided 300 pages of examples of the alleged infringement, which include side-by-side comparisons of CoStar-copyrighted photos on Apartments.com and Zillow Rentals. On Zillow Rentals listings included in the complaint, the photos have been cropped to exclude CoStar’s logo and are credited to Zillow after being syndicated to Redfin and Realtor.com.
A Zillow Rentals syndicated listing on Realtor.com and Redfin | Credit: CoStar
In addition to acquiring new customers and advertisers, CoStar claims its copyrighted photos are propping up other Zillow Rentals features and revenue streams, primarily its rental syndication agreements with Redfin and Realtor.com.
Through these deals, Zillow has become the exclusive rental listings provider for Realtor.com (for multifamily listings with 25-plus units), and Redfin, Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com. Realtor.com did not disclose the financial details of the agreement; however, Redfin has received a $100 million upfront payment with at least $75 million more coming over the next year through guaranteed lead generation payments.
CoStar says it cannot accurately calculate the damages from Zillow’s alleged actions. However, the company is seeking relief for two counts of copyright infringement, which they said have caused “irreparable and incalculable” harm.
The complaint also includes a request for Zillow to cover CoStar’s legal costs and fees, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, punitive damages, and further relief deemed appropriate by the court, including an order forcing Zillow to remove all CoStar-copyrighted images from its site and agree to third-party monitoring for future violations.
This isn’t CoStar’s first copyright infringement rodeo, with the company suing real estate listing platforms Xceligent and Crexi for using CoStar-copyrighted photos. CoStar won $500 million in its 2019 lawsuit against Xceligent, and the Crexi suit is ongoing after the federal judge presiding over the case said CoStar offered “ample evidence” of its infringement claims.
CoStar-owned Matterport subsidiary VHT, which will close on Aug. 15, also sued Zillow for copyright infringement in 2017, winning $1.9 million in damages plus interest.
Read CoStar’s full complaint here:
Update: This story was updated after publication with additional information from CoStar’s complaint.
