"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."
The Department of Justice secured a settlement limiting RealPage's use of landlord data and barring the software from being used to set rents. The DOJ alleged that RealPage combined competing landlords' data to offer daily rental price suggestions that nudged landlords to raise rents. Under the settlement, RealPage may only use landlord data at least 12 months old and must remove or redesign features that discourage lowering prices or prompt price matching. The company is barred from offering hyperlocalized block-by-block pricing. RealPage denies wrongdoing and the settlement aims to stop coordinated pricing that harmed renters.
Read at The Verge
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