CoStar Sues Zillow, Alleging Theft Of 47,000 Copyrighted Photos
CoStar Group is suing Zillow in what the CRE giant calls one of the largest image infringement cases in real estate history.
In a complaint filed Wednesday in New York federal court, CoStar claims that Zillow is one of the “competing websites [that] have sought to free-ride on CoStar’s unique contributions to the industry.”
“Zillow is profiting from decades of CoStar Group work and the billions of dollars we have invested,” CoStar founder and CEO Andy Florance said in a statement.
As part of the lawsuit, CoStar submitted a 1,800-page document containing links to nearly 47,000 copyrighted images that it alleged appear on Zillow’s rental listing platforms. According to the complaint, some of those photos are used across multiple listings and pages — appearing a total of more than 250,000 times.
CoStar said it protects its images by registering them with the U.S. Copyright Office and watermarking them with its logo. In some instances, the complaint alleges that a watermark is hidden in Zillow’s listings and only visible when the image is enlarged.
CoStar further alleged that Zillow has monetized its listings — and the accompanying photographs — by syndicating them to Redfin and Realtor.com, where the reposted content is attributed to Zillow.
“Even worse, Zillow is magnifying its infringement on Redfin and Realtor.com,” Florance said. “If these other sites do not immediately remove our images, we will have no choice but to sue them as well.”
Representatives for Redfin and Realtor.com declined to comment. Zillow didn’t respond to a request for comment.
CoStar owns a portfolio of real estate platforms including Homes.com, Apartments.com and LoopNet.
The lawsuit says Zillow used the photos to grow its footprint in the U.S. rental market. Once listings are claimed by brokers, property managers or landlords, they pay Zillow for leads and visibility.
CoStar also alleged that Zillow incorporates the photos into its Zestimate tool, using visual features like granite countertops to help calculate property values.
The complaint cites CoStar’s court battle with Xceligent, in which a Federal Trade Commission-appointed monitor found that the now-bankrupt listing platform had more than 38,000 images in its systems derived improperly from CoStar. In that case, Xceligent’s insurers were forced to cough up half a billion dollars to CoStar.
In 2020, CoStar sued Crexi over similar accusations of intellectual property theft. Last month, a federal district court in Los Angeles issued an opinion finding that Crexi had deliberately copied and cropped thousands of CoStar-copyrighted photos.
Crexi countersued CoStar, claiming that it violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The lawsuit was originally dismissed, but last month, appellate judges reversed that decision. The lawsuit accuses CoStar of participating in anticompetitive conduct by preventing its broker customers from providing listings to CoStar competitors through contractual terms and technological barriers.
