The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and 10 state attorneys general filed an amended complaint in its antitrust lawsuit against the software company RealPage to sue six of the nation’s largest landlords for allegedly using algorithmic pricing schemes to inflate the costs of rental housing.
The amended complaint alleges the landlords — Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, Blackstone’s LivCor LLC, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield Inc. and Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, Willow Bridge Property Company LLC, and Cortland Management LLC — schemed to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing. The DOJ noted the six companies are the landlords for more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia.
The companies were also accused of participating in “user groups” hosted by RealPage where they discussed how to modify the software’s pricing methodology, as well as their own pricing strategies.
The DOJ also filed a proposed consent decree with landlord Cortland that requires it to cooperate with the government, stop using its competitors’ sensitive data to set rents and stop using the same algorithm as its competitors without a corporate monitor.
During his aborted re-election campaign, President Biden blamed “corporate greed” for rising costs in rental housing, although he stopped short of identifying specific corporations.
“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,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s action against RealPage and six major landlords seeks to end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country.”
The co-plaintiffs in the case are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.
The proposed consent decree, along with the competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed consent decree during a 60-day comment.
