"Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other's moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors to end what critics said was illegal "algorithmic collusion." The deal announced Monday by the Department of Justice follows a yearlong federal antitrust lawsuit, launched during the Biden administration, against the Texas-based software company. RealPage would not have to pay any damages or admit any wrongdoing. The settlement must still be approved by a judge."
"RealPage software provides daily recommendations to help landlords and their employees nationwide price their available apartments. The landlords do not have to follow the suggestions, but critics argue that because the software has access to a vast trove of confidential data, it helps RealPage's clients charge the highest possible rent. "RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price," said DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater, who emphasized that the settlement avoided a costly, time-consuming trial."
"Under the terms of the proposed settlement, RealPage can no longer use that real-time data to determine price recommendations. Instead, the only nonpublic data that can be used to train the software's algorithm must be at least one year old. "What does this mean for you and your family?" Slater said in a video statement. "It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm.""
The Department of Justice reached a settlement with RealPage to end alleged algorithmic collusion by rent-pricing software. The proposed settlement requires judicial approval and does not impose damages or an admission of wrongdoing by RealPage. RealPage's platform provided daily price recommendations using nonpublic, real-time rental data aggregated across landlords, creating potential coordination that critics say raised rents. The settlement bars the use of real-time nonpublic data to generate price recommendations and limits algorithm training to nonpublic data at least one year old. The change aims to restore competition in local housing markets and let market forces, rather than confidential algorithms, set rents. RealPage described its historical data use as aggregated and anonymized and welcomed the settlement.
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