The U.S. Department of Justice is suing six major landlords for participating in a price-fixing scheme to inflate rents. The lawsuit alleges that the companies used a property management software to share sensitive pricing data and coordinate rent increases, harming tenants nationwide.
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing six of the country's biggest landlords for allegedly participating in a collective pricing scheme to gouge rent and hurt hundreds of thousands of tenants across the country. RealPage is a property management software that these companies allegedly used to set rents according to each other's 'competitively sensitive information' through pricing algorithms.
However, the DOJ accuses these companies of directly communicating with their competition's senior management about rent prices and even renewal rates. The DOJ alleges six of the country's biggest landlord companies - Cushman and Wakefield, Camden Property Trust, Greystar, Cortland, Willow Bridge, and LivCor, colluded to share sensitive data via the property management software RealPage. While Americans across the country struggled to afford housing, the landlords named in today’s lawsuit shared sensitive information about rental prices and used algorithms to coordinate to keep the price of rent high,' D.O.J. Acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki said in a statement. 'Today’s action against RealPage and six major landlords seeks to end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country.” CBS Austin reached out to all six of the companies, several of which own dozens of properties here in Austin. In a statement to CBS Austin, Camden Property Trust says it disagrees with the allegations, 'We are disappointed that the DOJ added us and other operators to their lawsuit against RealPage. Greystar has and will conduct its business with the utmost integrity. At no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices.' CBS Austin did not hear back from LivCor, Willow Bridge, or McCann's landlords at Cushman and Wakefield. Cortland, which is based in Atlanta, has already agreed to settle against these allegations. A court order would require it to cooperate with the D.O.J., stop using its competitors' data, and stop using those types of algorithms without court supervision. They sent CBS Austin the following statement: “Cortland is pleased to announce the US Department of Justice filed a proposed settlement that would resolve the Antitrust Division’s civil investigation into Cortland related to antitrust violations in the multifamily housing industry. Additionally, last month, the Antitrust Division informed Cortland that it had closed its criminal investigation into pricing practices in the multifamily industry. As a result, Cortland and its employees are no longer subject to the criminal investigation that motivated the Department of Justice’s May 2024 search at Cortland’s headquarters in Atlanta. We believe we were only able to achieve this result because Cortland has invested years and significant internal resources into developing a proprietary revenue management software tool that does not rely on data from external, non-public sources. The terms of Cortland’s settlement have been agreed to with the Department of Justice and will be filed with the court for its approval. We look forward to putting the federal government’s investigations behind us in 2025, as we continue to seek opportunities to invest in tools and services that will improve resident experience and the success of our managed communities.
RENT CONTROL LANDLORDS DOJ LAWSUIT PRICE FIXING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
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