Realtor®.com’s parent company has dropped a long-running and acrimonious lawsuit against rival CoStar, according to a court filing today, with a spokesperson saying the company “has chosen to settle” with an ex-employee who was accused of stealing data after joining Homes.com.
James Kaminsky, a former writer and editor for Realtor.com who was laid off in January 2024 and subsequently joined Homes.com, allegedly accessed “sensitive” data and files owned by his former employer, which last July sparked a lawsuit from Move, Inc., which owns Realtor.com.
A back-and-forth both in the courtroom and in the media underscored a larger battle between the two companies, who have sparred over traffic data and ad campaigns as well.
According to a Realtor.com spokesperson, Kaminsky is no longer employed by CoStar.
“Realtor.com has chosen to settle with our ex-employee, who is no longer an employee of CoStar. Given that he is no longer employed by CoStar and we have a settlement in place, we have chosen to dismiss our trade secrets lawsuit against CoStar because the risk of additional misuse has been mitigated,” the spokesperson wrote.
Kaminsky could not immediately be reached for comment, and the details of the settlement were not immediately disclosed.
The dismissal of the lawsuit was with prejudice, meaning the claims cannot be re-filed. Both sides were deep in the discovery process, with a trial scheduled for later this year.
CoStar CEO Andy Florance told RISMedia the lawsuit initiated by Realtor.com was “frivolous” in the first place.
“There never was any merit to it then and there’s no merit to it today,” he said. “They’ve lost multiple motions in court. And when we said we’re now going to sue for sanctions, because they knew it was a frivolous lawsuit, they dropped the suit immediately.”
Florance explained that last week CoStar threatened suing for sanctions, and insisted that was the reason Realtor.com dropped the litigation, not because it settled with Kaminsky.
“We could sue for sanctions because it was a frivolous lawsuit, but we’re just moving on,” Florance continued. “At the end of the day, the lawsuit was designed to manipulate the press. They made unsubstantiated allegations that they could not prove in court. They had all year to prove it. They didn’t prove anything. There was nothing. So everything they alleged was unsubstantiated, and they knew that when they began it. So they had no choice but to dismiss it, because if they didn’t they would face sanctions.”
Florance slammed Move, Inc. for putting Kaminsky through the legal wringer, blaming News Corp titan Rupert Murdoch and his way of doing business. News Corp owns Move, Inc.
“Kaminsky’s a victim of Murdoch’s playing tough,” he said. “People mistakenly think the National Association of REALTORS® owns Realtor.com. They don’t. The News Corp organization does, and that’s really a Murdoch organization. They play hardball, and Jim was a victim of that hardball. His name has been completely cleared. He did not transfer any trade secrets. The things that he was accused of, no one was able to substantiate.”
RISMedia asked Florance if Kaminsky was still a company employee, or was let go as Realtor.com claimed. He had been put on paid leave when the lawsuit was filed.
“I don’t know if he’s still on leave or not, but we could not use him or any of the people that worked for him to do anything for nine months,” said Florance. “I think everyone’s moved on. Those folks were pawns. But I think it’s really important that his name is cleared because he was accused of doing really bad things. We’ve been paying him. I don’t know if he’s still on our payroll or not, but we paid him for a long time.”
Florance added that the whole thing could have been avoided if Realtor.com had simply had a conversation with Kaminsky.
“All they needed to do was chat with him and say, ‘Hey, we’re cool,’ ” he said. “They didn’t have to bring a lawsuit. They could have said, ‘Hey, this guy has information, or he might have information. Please don’t share it.’ There was no purpose in bringing a lawsuit. If you were willing to settle it on friendly terms, you could have done that anywhere along the way. They trashed some poor guy’s reputation trying to achieve a PR stunt.”
The lawsuit originally centered on a handful of files and Realtor.com proprietary documents that Kaminsky admittedly accessed after leaving the company. According to CoStar and Kaminsky, his purpose was to bolster his portfolio and collect personal information after being abruptly laid off. Move, Inc. claimed the files contained competitively sensitive information that Kaminsky could have shared to advantage Homes.com as a competitor to Realtor.com.
After a number of court maneuvers and sharp accusations from each side’s lawyers, the lawsuit is over, even as the two companies continue to seek a competitive advantage in the “portal wars”—which recently saw a significant shift in power dynamics as Rocket Companies acquired Redfin.
CoStar also recently saw a shakeup on its board, seemingly centered around Homes.com after the portal has been somewhat slow in winding up its sales team.
“Our commitment to safeguarding our trade secrets remains unwavering and uncompromising,” the Realtor.com spokesperson said.