According to Fortune, the Department of Justice announced a settlement Monday with RealPage Inc. that bans the Texas-based software company from using real-time confidential data to recommend rental prices to landlords. The deal resolves a yearlong federal antitrust lawsuit that accused RealPage of facilitating “algorithmic collusion” among property managers. Under the settlement terms, RealPage can only use nonpublic data that’s at least one year old to train its pricing algorithms, though the company admits no wrongdoing and pays no damages. The agreement comes after Greystar, the nation’s largest landlord, agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit and $7 million to settle with nine states over RealPage usage. California and New York recently signed laws cracking down on rent-setting software, with ten states having joined the original DOJ lawsuit.
What this means for renters
Here’s the thing – this settlement could actually matter for people paying rent. The DOJ’s antitrust chief Gail Slater said straight up that “RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price.” Basically, when landlords all use the same real-time data feed to set prices, it stops being a competitive market and starts looking like… well, collusion.
Think about it. If every landlord knows exactly what their competitors are charging right now and adjusts accordingly, where’s the actual competition? The software was essentially creating a centralized pricing brain for the entire rental market. Now they’ll be working with year-old data, which means pricing decisions will have to be more independent and, frankly, less precise about squeezing every last dollar from tenants.
The bigger picture
This isn’t just about one company. RealPage’s legal troubles are part of a much larger trend of regulators finally waking up to how algorithms can distort markets. We’re seeing similar scrutiny in other industries where pricing software dominates. And let’s be real – when the nation’s largest landlord settles for $50 million, you know there’s fire behind that smoke.
What’s interesting is how quickly states are moving. California and New York just passed laws last month targeting this exact practice. Philadelphia and Seattle have local ordinances. Ten states joined the original DOJ lawsuit. This feels like the beginning of a major regulatory shift, not the end.
What’s next
So where does this leave the rental market? Well, the immediate impact might be more variability in pricing as landlords lose their crystal ball. But the bigger question is whether this settlement goes far enough. RealPage doesn’t admit wrongdoing and pays nothing – that’s a pretty soft landing for a company accused of helping drive up housing costs nationwide.
I suspect we’ll see more lawsuits and more regulatory action. The states that weren’t part of this settlement might continue their own legal battles. And honestly, when you look at the scale of these settlements, it’s clear this was a systemic issue, not just one bad actor.
The real test will be whether rents actually become more responsive to market forces rather than algorithmic coordination. If you’re renting an apartment in the next year, you might want to pay attention to whether pricing feels less… synchronized across different properties.
