Just over a month after CoStar sued Zillow over what it described as “systematic” copyright infringement, the portal giant has begun taking down the images at the center of the litigation from its websites.
Zillow began taking the images down this week and is in the process of notifying partners, a company spokesperson confirmed to Inman. The spokesperson added that the move is a routine procedure during copyright litigation.
News of that Zillow is taking down the images was first reported by Real Estate News.
The suit began in late July when CoStar accused Zillow of “systematic infringement of CoStar’s copyrighted photographs.” According to CoStar’s complaint, Zillow was displaying nearly 46,000 CoStar-copyrighted images on Zillow Rentals. Many of the images, CoStar also claimed, still had the CoStar watermark and were displayed more than 250,000 times on Zillow’s sites — as well as on sites run by Redfin and Realtor.com, which have listing agreements with Zillow.
CoStar CEO Andy Florance said in a statement at the time the suit was filed that Zillow’s “theft of tens of thousands of CoStar Group’s copyrighted photographs is nothing short of outrageous.”
The lawsuit is playing out against the backdrop of a bitter rivalry between the companies. The rivalry first publicly flared up in 2021, when Florance accused Zillow of “blackmailing” agents and “hijacking” listings.
Florance and CoStar subsequently went on to make huge investments in Homes.com, a residential real estate portal that competes directly with Zillow. CoStar has also asserted that Homes.com has grown into the second largest residential real estate portal in the U.S. — behind Zillow — though Damian Eales, CEO of Realtor.com parent Move Inc., has disputed that claim.
The fight for supremacy in the residential portal space has ultimately been one of real estate’s defining stories in recent years, and is often referred to as the “portal wars.”
In the copyright lawsuit, Zillow has yet to file an official response to CoStar’s complaint. The company has until the end of this month to do so.
