By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Zillow was sued on Wednesday by real estate information provider CoStar Group, which accused the largest U.S. online real estate portal of publishing at least 46,979 copyrighted photos without permission.
The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, which Arlington, Virginia-based CoStar estimated could exceed $1 billion.
Zillow did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
CoStar, which operates real
estate listing websites Apartments.com and Homes.com, accused Seattle-based Zillow of exploiting the photos to boost its rental listings business.
According to the complaint, Zillow uses the photos to induce property managers and landlords to "claim" properties that are not actively listed for rent, and then sells advertising packages and tools to generate revenue.
CoStar said Zillow also distributes some photos under syndication agreements to rival portals Realtor.com and Redfin, owned respectively by News Corp and Rocket Cos.
Zillow's "free-riding" on the photos results in infringement "on a massive scale, however measured," CoStar said.
CoStar said it provides limited licenses of its photos, including many that are watermarked, to real estate professionals, and does not allow sublicensing.
In 2019, CoStar obtained a $500 million judgment against the bankruptcy estate of real estate listing platform Xceligent over the publication of 38,489 copyrighted photos, court records show. Xceligent had filed to liquidate two years earlier.
CoStar threatened to sue Realtor.com and Redfin if they do not remove its copyrighted photos.
Redfin declined to comment. Realtor.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is CoStar Group Inc et al v Zillow Group Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-06248.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
