What Happened: The Department of Justice and Texas software maker RealPage announced Monday that they have reached a settlement in a lawsuit involving alleged price fixing in some of the nation’s largest rental marketplaces.
At issue was algorithmic rent-setting software sold by the technology company that prosecutors said reduced competition for landlords and allowed them to jack up apartment prices in ways that could violate antitrust laws. The settlement, which must now be approved by a judge, says RealPage will stop offering software that uses non-public “competitively sensitive” data shared among landlords to recommend how much to charge tenants, the people said.
Under the agreement, RealPage stopped conducting market research to gather this information and agreed not to discuss pricing strategies or trends based on non-public data at meetings it holds for property managers, the people said. The company also said it must remove or redesign software features that limit rent reductions or adjust prices among competitors.
If the settlement is accepted, a court-appointed monitor will ensure compliance with the settlement. The company also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in cases against property managers who used its software.
A 2022 ProPublica investigation found that RealPage was helping landlords determine rents in a way that legal experts say could lead to cartel-like behavior. The Justice Department also accused six large landlords of using algorithmic software to work together to raise rents. Some have reached settlements with prosecutors.
What they said: “The proposed settlement will help restore free market competition in the rental market for millions of American renters,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“Competitors must make their own pricing decisions, and the rise of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools will keep us at the forefront of vigorous antitrust enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater.
RealPage said in a statement on its website that the settlement “provides housing providers and technology innovators with greater certainty that their revenue management software can operate with confidence and in accordance with the views of federal antitrust enforcement officials.”
Dirk Wakeham, President and CEO of RealPage, said: “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the Department of Justice. This provides the clarity and stability we have long sought and allows us to move forward with a continued focus on innovation and our shared goal of delivering better outcomes for both housing providers and renters.”
According to RealPage, the proposed settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing or any financial penalties.
The company said its customers’ operations will not be disrupted, and that the settlement formalizes software fixes that have been “already made or planned” and that “all RealPage solutions remain fully available, compliant, and configurable to meet evolving legal requirements.”
RealPage believes its use of data has led to “lower rents, fewer vacancies and a pro-competitive effect,” said Stephen Wiseman, the company’s attorney.
RealPage declined further comment on the settlement.
Background: The proposed settlement is the latest development following ProPublica’s 2022 investigation. After the initial story, dozens of tenants sued RealPage. The Biden Justice Department filed antitrust charges against the company in 2024, and in January sued six of the nation’s largest landlords, including Greystar, for improperly cooperating to raise rents. One landlord told RealPage that he started raising rents within a week of installing the software, and within 11 months the rent had increased by more than 25%, prosecutors said.
The lawsuit continues under the Trump administration and has been joined by at least 10 attorneys general, including the attorney general of California, the nation’s most populous state with about 17 million renters.
Senators also held public hearings and introduced legislation that would ban the use of rent algorithms like RealPage. And at the local level, cities across the country, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, have moved to ban landlords from using similar algorithms to set rents.
Why it matters: The Biden Justice Department’s move against RealPage and its landlord customers over its use of shared data and technology was seen as a sign that the agency is willing to delve into the sticky corners of federal antitrust law.
In the past, federal prosecutors said in one filing that collusion occurred during “a formal handshake during a secret meeting.” “Algorithms are the new frontier.”
The Trump Justice Department continued to prosecute the case this year, even as the Trump administration reorganized the agency and scaled back traditional enforcement priorities such as police misconduct.
The proposed agreement follows the Department of Justice’s August announcement that it had entered into a deal with Greystar, the nation’s largest landlord, to resolve government claims related to its use of RealPage’s algorithmic rent-setting software. As part of the settlement, Greystar did not admit any wrongdoing and said it accepted the agreement “to clarify the government’s interpretation of the law and ensure that we continue to do things the right way.”
