NYC renters blame price surge on Compass in antitrust class action

Real estate giant Compass is accused of anticompetitive behavior in a new lawsuit by pulling listings from Zillow and StreetEasy, causing supply to plummet and prices to spike.MANHATTAN (CN) — A pair of New York City renters are pinning the city’s skyrocketing rent prices, in part, on the conduct of Compass, a top property broker currently warring with real estate listing platform Zillow and its subsidiary, StreetEasy.In a 33-page complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Manhattan renters Peter Castaneda and Haley Gelfand say they were forced to pay more than necessary for their one-bedroom apartment after Compass pulled its listings off StreetEasy’s website. They scrutinize Compass’ use of private exclusive listings, which they say is encouraging a growing share of brokers to list their properties exclusively to create scarcity and cash in on fees.“Compass, a titan of the housing industry throughout the entirety of the United States, is responsible for a conspiracy to monopolize and harm hardworking New Yorkers in the New York City-metro area,” they said.Castaneda and Gelfand claim that by 2025, after years of acquiring competitors, Compass amassed control of more than 80% of rental listings in Manhattan. With its brokerage opponents neutralized, the renters claim Compass is now looking to dominate the listing space by forcing its agents to remove their units from StreetEasy, causing a shortage in supply on the platform and prices to spike.The victims, according to Castaneda and Gelfand, are the renters themselves, who are now having to pay an artificially higher price when they find an apartment on StreetEasy. And if they use Compass’ in-house listing software instead, they’ll be forced to pay for the services of a broker.“As a matter of fact, Compass’ ‘strategy’ has intentionally caused an existential surge in the price of rental unit-specific apartments in New York City,” they claim. “The cause of this is that apartment inventory has precipitously dropped, creating a supply shock.”The renters claim they are each being forced to pay more than $800 than market rate for their one-bedroom Manhattan apartments — a price differential that “would not have existed but for the severe reduction in public listings of rental units on StreetEasy, where apartment rental prices are adjusted according to the law of supply and demand on the platform.”They claim Compass’ conduct is part of a long-running scheme from the company to both kneecap Zillow’s business model and drive more traffic to its own site to “extract as much as it could” from renters.The latest lawsuit comes amid a yearlong back-and-forth between the companies as they battle in the court of public opinion and with competing litigation.“From the halls of Congress to courtrooms across the country, Compass’ conquest to seize control over various housing markets has drawn consternation, scrutiny and litigation in a challenging attempt to quell the impending crisis caused by Compass,” Castaneda and Gelfand claim. “That crisis has now come to a pass.”Neither Zillow nor Compass immediately responded to requests for comment in response to Wednesday’s lawsuit.Compass sued Zillow directly in 2025 over civil antitrust violations, accusing it of unlawfully blocking listings on its platform if an agent first advertises it elsewhere. Compass sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Zillow from enforcing the so-called “Zillow ban” as the issue gets litigated.But in February, U.S. District Judge Jeanette Vargas found the practice doesn’t meaningfully prevent homebuyers from testing their options.“Given that consumers use multiple online home search platforms simultaneously at little or no cost, Zillow’s brand recognition and related network effect do not appear to have deterred prospective home buyers from cross-shopping amongst competitors or new entrants,” the Joe Biden appointee wrote.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads