Zillow and Compass are currently working on an accelerated discovery phase with regard to the motion of Compass for a provisional order, in which it claims that if Zillow continues to maintain its policy, the irreparable damage will suffer.
Announced at the beginning of April, Zillow’s Listing Access Standards Policy Listings of the Site prohibit if they are publicly advertised more than one working day before they are entered in the MLS and made available for display on IDX and VOW websites.
Compass files fit
At the end of June, just before the policy came into effect, Compass brought its lawsuit in which it claims that Zillow breaks the federal antitrust laws by implementing this policy.
“To protect the dominance of the market, Zillow has taken revenge against competing threats by carrying out an exclusion policy,” compass in its court case.
The policy has the potential to have a major impact on Kompas, because the brokerage has become a strong supporter of private listings through his three-phase marketing strategy.
In a letter addressed to Judge Vargas that was submitted on Wednesday, the parties state that they have reached an impasse and are unable to reach an agreement about Zillow’s request.
Zillow requires more documents and a deposition with CEO Robert Reffkin
In the letter, Zillow Judge Vargas says that it requires permission to serve ‘narrow accelerated requests for production on compass with regard to the [acquisition] And to perform an additional 2-hour deposition ”with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin that would concentrate on everywhere everywhere.
Zillow requires access to documents that contain representations and guarantees that Compass is everywhere, disclosures about financial risks or stock value, communication between companies about the access standards of Zillow, the three -phase marketing strategy of Compass and this court case. Moreover, Zillow would like to see financial predictions that have been linked to the merger.
According to Zillow, this information is relevant for the claims of Compass about ‘irreparable damage’, which makes it in its movement for a provisional order, because Zillow believes that the deal on the surface is demonstrating that compass is financially strong and does not experience irreparable damage due to Zillow’s access standards. Zillow believes that these documents may reveal that Compass told a different story somewhere about the impact of Zillow’s policy or the financial health of the company.
A ‘broad side issue’
Compass is back on these requests and claims that it is a “broad side issue of a non-related transaction.
“The information that Zillow demands is neither relevant for the consideration of the Court of Compass’s provisional command movement nor proportional to the accelerated discovery phase in this phase of the case,” the letter says.
In addition, Compass claims that the requests are too wide and stressful because they require large-scale searches of e-mails, telephones and storage files. Compass also notes that Zillow Reffkin has already deposited for four hours, during what time it could have asked about possible acquisition -deals, but it didn’t.
In mid-September, Compass was granted its request to force the deposition of Zillow co-founder Lloyd Frink.
According to Compass, Frink has’ unique and important information that no other witness can offer ‘, but Zillow argued that Compass had not demonstrated that the departure of Frink’ would generate unique information that are relevant to [Plaintiff’s] Motion for a provisional order. “Ultimately, Judge Vargas chose the Kompas side.
“When revising the entries of the parties, the court finds that the plaintiff has set up Mr. Frink sufficiently, possesses unique and personal knowledge that is relevant to the pending provisional order movement,” the ruling states.
As with the request to drop Frink, Judge Vargas will give a decision about Zillow’s request.
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