DOJ Sues RealPage, Maker Of Rent-Setting Algorithm

The Department of Justice and eight states have filed a lawsuit against RealPage, a Texas-based tech company, accusing it of participating in an illegal price-fixing scheme that critics claim has caused rents to soar in apartment buildings across the country, Heather Vogell reported for ProPublica.

The lawsuit alleges that RealPage reduced competition among landlords to boost prices and profits through its rent-setting software. I  Photo: RealPage

The civil lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Greensboro, North Carolina, alleges that RealPage reduced competition among landlords to boost prices and profits through its rent-setting software.

The lawsuit also claims that RealPage monopolized the market for such software.

“RealPage has built a business out of frustrating the natural forces of vigorous competition,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter at a news conference recently.

“The time has come to stop this illegal conduct.”

This antitrust lawsuit is the most significant action following a 2022 ProPublica investigation that explored RealPage’s role in helping landlords set rent prices nationwide, potentially leading to cartel-like behavior.

Since then, lawmakers have introduced legislation to ban such practices, tenants have filed numerous federal lawsuits, and San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has moved to bar landlords from using similar algorithms to set rents.

The DOJ’s lawsuit comes after a nearly two-year investigation into RealPage, involving data scientists who analyzed the algorithms to understand how they set prices.