Antitrust lawsuit against RealPage and landlords alleges rent price collusion

In an amended complaint, DOJ and nine states allege that RealPage, Inc., and some of the nation’s largest property management firms colluded to inflate apartment rents through RealPage's revenue management software, such as YieldStar and AI Revenue Management (AIRM). This software allegedly uses nonpublic, competitively sensitive data shared among landlords to recommend pricing that suppresses competition, resulting in artificially high rents. Defendants, in addition to RealPage, are:

• Greystar Real Estate Partners: The largest property management firm in the US allegedly relied on RealPage’s algorithms to collude with competitors on rent increases, pushing prices higher than market rates.
• Lincoln Property Company: Accused of using RealPage data to eliminate discounts and concessions.
• Cushman & Wakefield: Allegedly used RealPage software to share sensitive information about rental terms, effectively coordinating rent hikes.
• Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA): Allegedly leveraged RealPage’s system to reduce competitive pressures and increase rents in key markets.
• Equity Residential: Accused of explicitly sharing future rental pricing strategies with competitors through RealPage-facilitated communications.
• Camden Property Trust and Essex Property Trust: Allegedly used RealPage data to monitor competitors’ rent prices and suppress local competition.

The suit seeks to prohibit RealPage from sharing sensitive data among competitors, require landlords to sever agreements enabling collusion via software, and enforce strict compliance measures to prevent future anticompetitive behavior. In addition to DOJ, the states of North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington brought the suit.