The Department of Justice has announced a settlement with RealPage, the widely used rent-setting software that it accused of engaging in collusion to drive up rent prices by sharing previously private information from competing landlords. The settlement puts limits on RealPage’s ability to collect and use that data, and blocks it from being used to set rents.
Last year, the DOJ and several other states filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, claiming that the company’s rent-setting software combines data from competing landlords to provide daily rental price suggestions. “As competitor-landlords increase their rents, RealPage’s software nudges other competing landlords to increase their rents as well,” the DOJ alleged.
If the court approves the DOJ’s settlement, RealPage must only use data from landlords that is 12 months or older to power its algorithm. The settlement also requires RealPage to “remove or redesign” features that discourage landlords from lowering prices or prompt landlords to match their prices with competitors. RealPage would also be barred from offering “hyperlocalized pricing” information, which Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater describes in a video on X as hiking up rents “block-by-block.” RealPage denies any wrongdoing.
“RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price,” Slater said. “We reached a settlement that stops RealPage from coordinating pricing with its customers.”
