RealPage Settles DOJ Lawsuit Alleging Algorithmic Price-Fixing in Rental Markets

The deal curbs RealPage’s use of landlords’ secret data to shape rents in housing markets, in what the Justice Department labeled ‘algorithmic coordination.’

A sign advertising units for rent is displayed outside a Manhattan building in New York City on April 11, 2024. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

RealPage has agreed to settle a Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust case accusing the real estate software company of enabling landlords across the United States to coordinate rental prices through its algorithmic pricing tools, in what Trump administration officials said was a major step in lowering rent costs.

The proposed consent judgment, filed on Nov. 24 in federal court, would bar RealPage from using competitors’ real-time, nonpublic data to generate rent recommendations and would force the company to redesign features that regulators say helped align pricing among rival landlords.

Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater, head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, said the settlement is a “big step in keeping our rental housing markets fair and competitive,” calling RealPage’s system an engine of coordination that replaced independent pricing decisions.

RealPage’s software generates daily rent recommendations drawn from a shared pool of nonpublic, sensitive data submitted by competing landlords. The Justice Department said this setup allowed RealPage to act as an algorithmic middleman—using rivals’ confidential information to push properties toward higher prices and discourage price cuts.

Even though landlords were not required to follow RealPage recommendations, investigators said many effectively outsourced pricing decisions to the platform and its algorithms, aligning rents across competing buildings and “replacing competition with coordination.”

“Landlords fed their confidential data into a shared algorithm that generated daily rent recommendations,“ Slater said. ”RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price.”

Curbs on Algorithmic Pricing

Under the settlement, which a judge must still approve, RealPage must stop using rival landlords’ confidential lease and occupancy data to set rents in real time, limit its algorithms to nonpublic information that is at least 12 months old, and end highly-localized pricing tools that pushed rents higher block by block.

The company must also remove features that discouraged landlords from cutting prices, halt its collection of sensitive market-survey data, and operate under a court-appointed monitor for at least three years.

Slater described the relief as effectively equivalent to what it would have sought after trial, but delivered years sooner.

“It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm,“ she said. ”It is a win for renters, and it means more affordable options for Americans trying to make ends meet.”

The case is part of the division’s broader crackdown on what it calls “algorithmic coordination,” information sharing, and other anticompetitive practices in housing markets across the United States.

RealPage, based in Richardson, Texas, denied wrongdoing and said the deal provides clarity and avoids costly litigation. The company said that the agreement carries no financial penalties or admissions of liability.

“This resolution marks an important milestone for RealPage, our customers, and the multifamily industry,” said Dirk Wakeham, RealPage president and CEO, in a statement.

He added that the company is “part of the solution to addressing the cost of housing” and that its tools help operators make “informed, independent decisions in a complex housing market.”

The company said the settlement largely formalizes product changes it has already implemented over the past year and ensures its revenue-management systems remain available to landlords and legally compliant.

Stephen Weissman, an attorney and former deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission who represented RealPage, said the agreement provides “certainty and finality” for the company and its customers.

“There has been a great deal of misinformation about how RealPage’s software works and the value it provides for both housing providers and renters,” Weissman said.

“We believe that RealPage’s historical use of aggregated and anonymized nonpublic data, which include rents that are typically lower than advertised rents, has led to lower rents, less vacancies, and more procompetitive effects.”

The Justice Department—which pledged to continue “vigorous antitrust enforcement” amid the rise of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools—said the settlement helps restore free-market competition for millions of American renters.