Compass is the largest U.S. residential brokerage by sales volume, according to RealTrends Verified. Its affiliated real estate professionals closed approximately $262.2 billion in transactions in 2025. The company is now facing growing legal scrutiny and calls for federal review over its expansion of private-listing practices. In July, a coalition of consumer, housing and civil rights organizations petitioned federal antitrust authorities to investigate several Compass agreements with multiple listing services.
In a petition delivered to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, the Consumer Federation of America, alongside groups including the American Economic Liberties Project and the National Consumer Law Center, called for an immediate investigation into agreements Compass recently struck with several major multiple listing services, including Chicago’s Midwest Real Estate Data.
The coalition’s letter challenges Compass’ push to institutionalize “pocket” or private listing networks, in which homes are withheld from public feeds and marketed first within limited brokerage channels. The coalition argues that these arrangements can function as an anticompetitive gatekeeping mechanism by giving dominant brokerages greater control over who sees available homes and when. In the groups’ view, that structure may disadvantage buyers searching on public portals and agents operating outside the participating network.
According to the coalition, limiting a home’s visibility during its initial marketing period may reduce buyer competition and create incentives for a brokerage to represent both sides of the transaction. The groups contend that this could allow brokerages to collect commissions from both the buyer and seller while leaving some homeowners with fewer bids and potentially lower sale prices.
MRED disputes the suggestion that its private network increases double-ended transactions. In figures published by the MLS, MRED said private-status listings had lower rates of “double-ended agent” transactions than standard active listings in every year it tracked since 2022. For 2026 through the date of its analysis, MRED reported a rate of 2.9% for private listings, compared with 3.4% for standard listings. The figures were produced by MRED itself and do not independently resolve broader questions about listing visibility, sale prices, buyer access or transactions involving different agents affiliated with the same brokerage.
The coalition’s letter also raises fair-housing concerns, citing a Zillow analysis of more than 40,000 Chicago-area listings. Zillow reported that 7.9% of homes in majority-white areas were privately listed, compared with 3.4% in majority-non-white areas, and said the disparity remained after controlling for several property and market factors. MRED disputed Zillow’s interpretation, saying its private listing network is available to all MRED members and that it reviews private and active listings for potential fair-housing violations. The competing claims have not been resolved by an independent regulator or court.
The dispute has also produced two separate lawsuits involving Compass and Zillow. Compass sued Zillow in June 2025, alleging that Zillow’s listing-access rules unlawfully excluded homes marketed privately for more than one business day and that Zillow had conspired with Redfin. A federal judge denied Compass’ request for a preliminary injunction in February 2026, finding that the brokerage had not demonstrated a likelihood of success on its claims. Compass voluntarily dismissed the case the following month after Zillow announced Zillow Preview, a product intended to make certain pre-market listings publicly visible.
In a separate case filed May 12, 2026, Zillow sued Compass and Midwest Real Estate Data in federal court. Zillow alleges that the defendants coordinated to threaten the portal’s access to Chicago-area listing data in an effort to pressure Zillow to accept their private-listing practices. MRED has countered that the dispute concerns Zillow’s attempt to impose its own display rules on listings permitted under MRED policies and seller or broker discretion. Zillow’s assertions remain allegations; the filing itself is not a judicial finding that Compass or MRED violated antitrust law.
After MRED temporarily cut off Zillow’s listing feed, U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. granted Zillow a temporary restraining order on May 22 and directed MRED to restore access to its Chicago-area listing data while the case proceeded. In September, Tharp denied Zillow’s request for a preliminary injunction, dissolved the temporary order, compelled Zillow’s claims against MRED to arbitration and stayed the federal case against Compass pending that process. The rulings addressed interim access and the forum for the dispute, not the ultimate merits of Zillow’s antitrust allegations.
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has pushed back against critics, framing private listing networks as a matter of consumer privacy and seller autonomy. Reffkin argues that homeowners deserve the freedom to market their properties discreetly without incurring “days on market” tallies or public scrutiny on web portals.
Reffkin’s defense has not persuaded housing advocates. They argue that reducing transparency in an already constrained housing market could deepen information gaps among buyers and give the largest brokerages greater control over scarce inventory.
Recent federal data point to a weak and volatile housing market. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that new single-family home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 607,000 in July 2026, down 10.5% from the revised June pace of 678,000. The estimated decline carried a margin of error of plus or minus 14%, meaning the month-to-month change was not statistically significant. Separately, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reported that existing-home sales remained at a three-decade low of 4.1 million in 2025.
Affordability remains a separate constraint. The estimated monthly payment on a median-priced home rose from approximately $1,700 in early 2020 to $3,100 in the fourth quarter of 2025, increasing the annual income needed to afford that payment from $66,000 to more than $120,000, according to a Fox Business report summarizing findings from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
High mortgage rates, property taxes and a limited supply of lower-cost homes continue to make homeownership unaffordable for many households.
Consumer groups argue that the expansion of private-listing networks could add another barrier by limiting public visibility into available homes and making it harder for smaller brokerages to compete. Compass and MRED reject that characterization, maintaining that private-listing options protect seller privacy and preserve marketing choice.
The dispute centers on whether sellers can retain that discretion without reducing transparency, buyer access or competition in the broader housing market.