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….