Zillow Group slammed Compass with two lawsuits late Friday, alleging the SoftBank-backed brokerage hired three executives in violation of their non-competes as it staffed up its nascent tech hub in Seattle. The lawsuits also claim that Compass actively sought to obtain proprietary information from Zillow to avoid building its own technology.
The suits — one filed in federal court and the other in Washington state court — also name Michael Chen, Zillow's former head of artificial intelligence; Michael Hania, an enterprise sales executive; and Chester Millisock Jr., a software engineer.
Compass actively recruited these employees in order to avoid the costs associated with open and honest competition and to obtain Zillow's confidential and proprietary information," court documents allege.