RealPage Should be Put Out of Business, Not Penalised

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 24, 2024

"There were some monopoly articles about RealPage's algorithms," a curator said, citing [1-6].

This is particularly relevant to us because it shows how society is harmed - in secret (collusion) - by proprietary algorithms nobody can audit.

Having never used the thing in my entire life (either as one renting out or looking to rent), I spoke to Ryan, whose ex-boyfriend worked in the real estate industry. "John says the apartment complex he worked at in Seattle was using it," Ryan told me.

"A price-fixing scheme to raise rent that was so crooked it got federal attention. Only 8 States though? It shows you how good the landlords are at bribing the governments of the other 42 into not doing shit. About an issue that over half of the country is dealing with. Out of control prices on their apartment. It will take months or a year to get any progress on RealPage. They'll fight. They might settle. But they'll probably still exist."

"When they pay damages, it will go to State general funds, not the renters that they stole from. The landlords got together and defeated rent control boards here." █

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1. U.S. Accuses RealPage of Enabling Collusion on Rents in Antitrust Suit

   The suit, joined by North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington, accuses RealPage of facilitating a price-fixing conspiracy that boosted rents beyond market forces for millions of people. It’s the first major civil antitrust lawsuit where the role of an algorithm in pricing manipulation is central to the case, Justice Department officials said.

2. DOJ Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against RealPage

3. Justice Department sues property management software provider RealPage

   The company’s software suite is underpinned by a price recommendation algorithm. Landlords share property data such as rental rates, discounts and amenities with RealPage. The algorithm uses this information to generate rental price recommendations that are updated on a daily basis.

   The Justice Department charges that RealPage’s price suggestions reduce competition among landlords and thereby harm renters. “RealPage’s pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Using software as the sharing mechanism does not immunize this scheme from Sherman Act liability.”

4. Feds and eight US states sue RealPage for rent price fixing

   "Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law," said US Attorney General Merrick Garland, in a statement. "We allege that RealPage's pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents."

5. Case No. 1:24-cv-00710

   3. RealPage replaces competition with coordination. It substitutes unity for rivalry. It subverts competition and the competitive process. It does so openly and directly—and American renters are left paying the price.

6. The Apartment Rental Market Is Rigged by Algorithms, a DOJ Lawsuit Alleges

   If you’ve rented an apartment in the US in the past several years, you may have had the sense that the game was rigged: Prices creep up not only at your building but at others throughout the city, seemingly in lockstep. A new civil lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice today alleges that in many cases it’s not just in your head—and that a single company’s algorithm is to blame.