he U.S. Department of Justice and 10 state attorneys general have ramped up their antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, a property management software company.
The plaintiffs have filed, an amended complaint targeting six of the nation’s largest landlords.
The lawsuit accuses these landlords of engaging in algorithmic pricing schemes that have allegedly inflated rental prices, adversely affecting millions of renters across the United States.
In November, RealPage denied the claims in the original lawsuit but said it has made changes to allow landlords to opt out of using nonpublic data.
“Ill-informed legislation seeking to ban the responsible use of nonpublic price data will not lower rent prices,” said Jennifer Bowcock, a RealPage spokeswoman.
The landlords named in the complaint include Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, Blackstone’s LivCor LLC, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield Inc (formerly Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC), Willow Bridge Property Company LLC, and Cortland Management LLC.
Collectively, these companies manage over 1.3 million rental units in 43 states and the District of Columbia. The DOJ alleges that these landlords used RealPage’s pricing algorithms to share sensitive rental information and coordinate pricing strategies, thereby reducing competition and keeping rents artificially high.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division said the DOJ’s action aims to dismantle these practices and enhance housing affordability nationwide.
“While Americans across the country struggled to afford housing, the landlords named in today’s lawsuit shared sensitive information about rental prices and used algorithms to coordinate to keep the price of rent high,” Mekki said.
The amended complaint outlines several methods of collusion among the landlords, including direct communication between senior managers about sensitive topics such as rents and occupancy, conducting “call arounds” to discuss pricing strategies, and participating in RealPage-hosted “user groups” to align on pricing methodologies.
Synchronized rent strategies?
Additionally, the landlords are accused of sharing details about RealPage software parameters to further synchronize their pricing strategies.
As part of the legal proceedings, the DOJ has proposed a consent decree with Cortland Management LLC. If approved by the court, this decree would require Cortland to stop using competitors’ sensitive data for pricing, refrain from employing third-party algorithms without oversight and cooperate with the DOJ’s ongoing investigation.
Cortland, which manages over 80,000 units across 13 states, has agreed to these terms to resolve the claims against it reports Consumer Affairs.
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