The Zillow court case with realtor.com continues. Recently, a Seattle judge ordered a neutral forensic analysis of Zillow’s employee computers after allegations that the company was stealing trade secrets from its leading competitor realtor.com, and then destroying the evidence.
Two top executives at Zillow who previously worked at realtor.com have been accused of sharing and stealing information between the two companies.
According to Realtor Magazine, “Former realtor.com President Errol Samuelson and former Move Executive Vice President of Industry Development Curt Beardsley engaged in deceptive and unlawful conduct by passing highly sensitive information to Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff and others in the run-up to their March 2014 departures from Move, the suit alleges.”
The forensic investigation of Zillow computers, to be led by a court-appointed forensic expert, will include USB devices, e-mail accounts, Zillow computers, and personal computers and tablets used by Samuelson and Beardsley.
“NAR and Move have been saying for some time that Zillow and its employees have destroyed evidence and misappropriated confidential business information affecting realtor.com,” says NAR General Counsel Katherine Johnson. “We’re grateful the court in Seattle has appointed a forensic expert to search for more indications of unlawful conduct.”
Earlier in the year, Zillow also filed a counter lawsuit against Move and NAR who realtor.com is a part of. According to realtor.com, “Zillow Vice President Chris Crocker sent a whistleblower letter to Move detailing Zillow’s alleged attempts to steal realtor.com databases and hide intellectual property in cloud storage accounts.”
Metadata on a database was found and allegedly accessed by a user named “Curt”, assumed to be former Move Executive Vice President of Industry Development Curt Beardsley who moved to Zillow.
Zillow also claimed in the letter that the media had produced falsehoods about them and their reputation was being hurt.
As this case continues on, both Zillow and realtor.com are available to you as resources as you are a part of the real estate market. However, our expert agents here at RE/MAX Paradise are also more than happy to advise and support you! Contact us today.