NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) - Zillow ( ZG ) was sued on

Wednesday by real estate information provider CoStar Group ( CSGP )

, which accused the largest U.S. online real estate

portal of publishing at least 46,979 copyrighted photos without

permission.

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court seeks

unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, which CoStar ( CSGP )

estimated could exceed $1 billion.

CoStar ( CSGP ) obtained a $500 million award in 2019 against the

real estate listing platform Xceligent, over the publication of

38,489 copyrighted photos, court records show.

Zillow ( ZG ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu

Nomiyama )