Century 21 Wins Lawsuit Over Zoocasa

I am proud to say that, not only are Century 21 industry leaders in technology, but we are also industry leaders in ensuring our real estate data is used only when appropriate. Zoocasa, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications, breached contract and this led to copyright infringement for collecting and reproducing data from our Century 21 Canada website without consent. This is also known as “scraping“. While Century 21 Canada wasn’t looking for much money we were granted a permanent injunction which further prevents Zoocasa from posting data from our site. Don Lawby, president and CEO of Century 21 Canada is pleased with the decision and as a Century 21 Saskatoon real estate agent I am proud of our company for standing up for what is right.

Century 21 made the decision not to participate in Zoocasa’s plans for the site yet Zoocasa decided to access our information anyways and this is illegal. Century 21 began with a letter to Rogers but Zoocasa continued. After a second letter Zoocasa changed their approach and, instead of removing the data, they started using scaled down versions and snippets of information.

As Don Lawby states in an interview with REM Magazine, “We came away feeling very good-that you can’t just go out and take whatever you want from the Internet and create a for-profit business, so to speak”. I think it is pretty remarkable that our Century 21 company took charge where no other real estate company in Canada probably even noticed.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
kari@saskatoonrealestate.net