NYC renters blame price surge on Compass in antitrust class action

Filed 6d ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jules Dalou · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Two Manhattan renters filed a federal antitrust class action against Compass, claiming the brokerage's practice of pulling listings from StreetEasy created an artificial supply shortage that inflated their rent by more than $800 a month. The suit alleges Compass, after years of acquisitions, controls more than 80% of Manhattan rental listings and now pressures agents to keep units off public platforms to funnel renters toward broker fees.

The complaint frames this as part of a broader fight between Compass and Zillow, which owns StreetEasy, including dueling lawsuits over Zillow's policy of blocking listings advertised elsewhere first. A judge already rejected Compass's own antitrust claim against that policy in February, finding renters cross-shop platforms freely regardless of Zillow's rules.

Neither Compass nor Zillow responded to requests for comment on the new suit.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When a company's own PR insists it's building a housing empire, and a lawsuit takes that boast at its word to explain your rent check, the irony writes itself. Whether courts agree that scarcity-by-design counts as illegal monopolization or just aggressive business as usual will decide a lot more than one Manhattan one-bedroom.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: The Builder · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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