Minnesota and Justice Department sue RealPage for rent scheming with landlords

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice and eight states filed suit against RealPage Inc. on Friday over alleged anti-competitive practices that harm renters.

The Justice Department sued RealPage in North Carolina, arguing that the company’s software, which helps landlords set rent prices for their properties, reduces competition and drives up rental costs. The Justice Department was joined by the attorneys general of North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.

The civil antitrust lawsuit accuses RealPage of violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.

“Americans should not have to pay more rent just because a company found a new way to work with landlords and break the law,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“We allege that RealPage’s pricing algorithm allows landlords to exchange confidential, competitively sensitive information and adjust their rents. The use of software as an exchange mechanism does not exempt this system from liability under the Sherman Act, and the Department of Justice will continue to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws and protect the American people from those who violate them.”

Earlier this month, former Virginia governors Bob McDonnell and Jim Gilmore, as well as the state’s former attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, wrote a letter to Republican state attorneys general urging them not to join the Justice Department’s lawsuit against RealPage Inc.

“We ask that you do not choose to sign an unjustified, anti-market lawsuit that would create knowledge gaps around pricing – which would prevent future construction and investment in the housing industry and make today’s problems worse, not better,” they wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the company’s software is unfair to renters.

“By feeding sensitive data into a sophisticated algorithm powered by artificial intelligence, RealPage has found a modern way to violate a centuries-old law through the systematic coordination of rental prices — undermining competition and fairness for consumers in the process,” she said. “Training a machine to break the law is still breaking the law.”