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Slashdot: US Goverment Investigating Real-Estate Tech Company Accused of Helping Landlords Collude

US Goverment Investigating Real-Estate Tech Company Accused of Helping Landlords Collude
Published on November 28, 2022 at 06:01AM
The anti-trust division of America's Department of Justice "has reportedly opened up an investigation into RealPage, the real estate technology company accused of contributing to higher-than-normal rent prices," reports the Verge. ProPublica writes that the investigation explores "whether rent-setting software made by a Texas-based real estate tech company is facilitating collusion among landlords, according to a source with knowledge of the matter." *The inquiry is being launched as questions have arisen about a 2017 merger between RealPage and its largest pricing competitor.... Congressional leaders have pushed for an investigation into RealPage in three letters to the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission, which were sent after a ProPublica report on the software's use in mid-October. The letters raised concerns that RealPage's pricing software could be pushing rents above competitive levels and allowing big landlords to coordinate their pricing in violation of federal antitrust laws. "We are concerned that the use of this rate setting software essentially amounts to a cartel to artificially inflate rental rates in multifamily residential buildings," three senators said in a letter in early November. They included Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights.... In addition to the letters from congressional lawmakers, renters have filed three lawsuits in federal court in Seattle and San Diego since mid-October, alleging RealPage and a slew of large landlords are engaging in anticompetitive behavior through the company's software. They note Capital Forum's report with additional details — but the Verge nicely summarizes the issue: ProPublica's report states that the algorithm's design has "raised questions among real estate and legal experts about whether RealPage has birthed a new kind of cartel that allows the nation's largest landlords to indirectly coordinate pricing, potentially in violation of federal law." These experts have also raised concerns with the RealPage user group, an online forum that lets apartment managers who use the service communicate — and potentially coordinate — with one another.

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