Two real estate giants are deciding which homes you’re allowed to see

On Sept. 15, federal Judge John Tharp in Chicago handed down a ruling that will shape what homes American buyers can find online. Almost no one outside the industry noticed.

Tharp denied Zillow’s request to block Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) from enforcing its listing rules, dissolved an earlier restoration of Zillow’s access to Chicago-area listings, sent Zillow’s claims against the MLS to arbitration, and stayed the related case against the brokerage firm, Compass. That means a dispute over who controls access to listings in the country’s third-largest metropolitan market is now headed into private arbitration.