[ad_1]
We wrote final week about 9 states’ settlement with the nation’s largest landlord, Greystar, and the way it portended dangerous information for the Division of Justice (DOJ) civil case towards RealPage:
Some imagine that the soft Justice settlements with mega landlords like Greystar and Cortland, which embody cooperation within the case towards RealPage, imply the guide goes to get thrown on the latter. Shade me skeptical. It’s extra probably these are simply the opening sweeps of the entire crime spree underneath the rug.
Effectively, the dust pile underneath the rug simply acquired an entire lot greater. A couple of days earlier than Thanksgiving, the DOJ introduced in a vacation information dump that it’s settling its civil case with RealPage.
To recap, Greystar and different mega landlords used widespread software program provided by the Texas-based, personal equity-owned firm RealPage so as to accumulate real-time pricing and provide ranges, after which used that knowledge to make unit-specific pricing and provide choices so as to gouge the American commoners.
In December the DOJ closed its felony investigation into RealPage. Again in August, Greystar reached a settlement with the Division of Justice during which it didn’t admit any wrongdoing nor pay even a token high quality. In latest months states reached weak settlements with landlord behemoths like Cortland and Greystar who use RealPage as a price-fixing intermediary. These included sofa change fines, however a minimum of held out the chance that they would want to cease utilizing RealPage’s collusion software program.
As we identified final week, nonetheless, the “limits” positioned on the mega landlords—a lot of that are private-equity-owned utilizing software program created by RealPage,which is owned by personal fairness powerhouse Thoma Bravo— use of information-sharing software program had been depending on the ultimate federal judgement towards RealPage.
So it successfully all got here all the way down to the Trump DOJ and its lawsuit towards the corporate. And the DOJ mainly declared open season on the American peasants.
Right here’s Matt Stoller commenting on the result of the case, together with weird assault on him from DOJ Antitrust Chief Gail Slater on the Twitter/X. It’s all nicely price a learn, however right here’s the half explaining how RealPage and landlords will solely must make a number of tweaks to maintain robbing you:
The settlement is a set of “advanced behavioral cures” which have such a poor observe document of being enforced. They usually really feel filled with loopholes that can enable the corporate to approximate a lot of the sooner habits. For example, there are many totally different guidelines on “artificial curves,” “unaffiliated property knowledge,” “surrogate knowledge,” exceptions of exceptions, and far of the terminology doesn’t match up with the unique grievance. If I had been a protection lawyer making an attempt to insert loopholes right into a settlement, this type of doc is what I’d suggest.
Take, for example, the “artificial curves,” talked about beforehand which is basically an inventory of costs that RealPage presents to assist landlords set rents. The settlement says RealPage can’t provide the identical artificial curve to totally different shoppers, which might be a type of price-fixing. But it surely doesn’t say that RealPage can’t provide an analogous artificial curve to totally different shoppers. If RealPage barely tweaks the listing of costs, or makes use of final week’s curve, then that appears high quality. Or perhaps it’s not, it’s a grey space. Which suggests detecting a violation can be so tough, after which complaining to a choose about such a violation would even be time-consuming. RealPage is aware of this settlement received’t be policed vigorously.
RealPage is clearly planning on persevering with enterprise as regular. Right here’s what the corporate needed to say in regards to the settlement:
The settlement additionally supplies better certainty for housing suppliers and know-how innovators that income administration software program might be operated confidently and in compliance with the views of federal antitrust enforcers…
The settlement displays RealPage’s long-standing dedication to compliance and accountable innovation, making certain our merchandise proceed to profit each property house owners and their residents.
-
No findings or admissions of legal responsibility: The settlement contains no monetary penalties, damages, or findings or admissions of wrongdoing.
-
Continuity for patrons: There is no such thing as a disruption to buyer operations. All RealPage options stay absolutely out there, compliant, and configurable to satisfy evolving authorized necessities.
-
Formalizing product modifications already made or deliberate: The settlement basically commits RealPage to the modifications to its income administration options that it already has been implementing since over a 12 months in the past.
-
Unbiased oversight: RealPage has agreed to an impartial monitor to substantiate the continuing compliance of our income administration merchandise, reflecting our confidence of their integrity and our long-standing dedication to accountable operation and innovation.
A couple of notes.
-
- The concept RealPage’s software program advantages residents is ludicrous and is contradicted in earlier statements made by firm officers, in addition to these utilizing its software program.
For instance, right here’s firm govt Andrew Bowen bragging about how the software program was “driving it,” referring to rental worth will increase. He added: “As a property supervisor, only a few of us can be prepared to really increase rents double digits inside a single month by doing it manually.”
As we’ve detailed, there’s robust motive to imagine that RealPage and use of its collusion software program by Wall Avenue landlords has been a serious contributor to the ever-worsening homeless disaster in America.
“The Situation of Laboring Man at Pullman,” political cartoon from Chicago Labor Newspaper, July 7, 1894, which precisely sums up the state of affairs confronted by working People at this time. Picture: Wikimedia Commons.
2. “Continuity for patrons” means ongoing unlawful habits now blessed by the DOJ. Let’s assessment:
Right here’s an Affiliate Vice President of one of many defendants speaking up the collusionary side of the software program, which was featured in RealPage’s personal literature:
With LRO [RealPage’s Lease-Rent Options] we not often make any overrides to the [pricing] suggestions . . . [W]e are all technically opponents, LRO helps us to work collectively . . . to make us all extra profitable in our pricing . . . LRO is designed to work with a neighborhood in pricing methods, not work individually.”
RealPage’s “suggestions” is code for price-fixing:
To make sure that the landlords abide by these “suggestions,” RealPage places vital “strain” on them “to implement RealPage’s costs,” together with by requiring shoppers to submit requests to deviate to the “company workplace” and monitoring the “id of the shopper’s workers that requested a deviation.” Multifamily Compl. ¶¶ 17-20, 261-86. Consequently, landlords utilizing RealPage undertake RealPage’s suggestions 80-90% of the time.
Moreover, based on a March 2024 joint authorized transient from the DOJ and FTC, even with out the extra strain, a majority of these suggestions by way of algorithm are nonetheless unlawful:
It’s per se unlawful for competing landlords to collectively delegate key points of their pricing to a standard algorithm, even when the landlords retain some authority to deviate from the algorithm’s suggestions. Though full adherence to a price-fixing scheme could render it more practical, the effectiveness of the scheme just isn’t a requirement for per se illegality.
3. ““The settlement basically commits RealPage to the modifications to its income administration options that it already has been implementing since over a 12 months in the past.” That’s probably referring to a instrument RealPage rolled out providing its shoppers the power to take away using nonpublic competitor knowledge when calculating hire “suggestions.”
However right here’s the issue, once more from Stoller:
RealPage will get to maintain its pricing advisors that inform landlords what to cost. The change is these advisors are usually not allowed to have broader conferences, however they’re nonetheless allowed to have one-on-one conversations with landlords so long as these conversations are primarily based on public knowledge…
I discover this to be an odd alternative. How is a pricing advisor purported to have a dialogue solely primarily based on public knowledge or the shopper’s knowledge? If a shopper says “what do you concentrate on elevating rents right here” and that pricing advisor simply talked to a special landlord who’s elevating costs, what are they purported to say? Are they purported to delete all the information of their head? Regulation companies have shopper conflicts for precisely this motive. This settlement is *asking* to be violated.
Add all of it up, and it seems to be like Thoma Bravo probably met the Trump administration asking worth. From Aug. 6, “MAGA Antitrust Agenda Underneath Siege by Lobbyists Near Trump,” which describes how huge cash is shopping for get out of jail playing cards on antitrust violations. Right here’s the phase that applies to RealPage:
Different corporations going through antitrust investigations at the moment are trying to rent legal professionals or lobbyists near Trump after witnessing the favorable settlement that HPE reached, based on a number of protection legal professionals who repeatedly signify merging corporations earlier than the Justice Division.
…Thoma Bravo, a private-equity supervisor that owns an organization going through a number of antitrust lawsuits, additionally employed [Brian Ballard—a longtime Trump backer, who raised $50 million for his 2024 election] in March to foyer on competitors points associated to the real-estate market, based on filings. The division final 12 months sued Actual Web page, a Thoma Bravo portfolio firm, alleging that RealPage’s rent-setting software program allowed house landlords to illegally coordinate worth will increase.
And right here we’re.
9 states who had been co-plaintiffs with the Antitrust Division towards RealPage didn’t signal on to the settlement, however is there a motive for hope there?
These are the identical 9 (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee) that simply championed an offensive $7 million settlement from the nation’s largest landlord, Greystar.
In that very same settlement in addition they inserted the next wiggle room that will enable the corporate to maintain utilizing RealPage software program relying on the choice from the Trump DOJ. Right here’s the textual content from the state’s cope with Greystar:
Greystar could license or use a Income Administration Product in a Settling State that complies with the phrases of an agreed Closing Judgment between the US and RealPage in United States et al. v. RealPage et al…
For the avoidance of doubt, if solely a RealPage-U.S. Closing Judgment (however not a RealPage-Settling States-Closing Judgment) is filed with the courtroom by January 5, 2026, then Greystar could use a Income Administration Product that complies with a RealPage-U.S. Closing Judgment.
Effectively, the load of federal antitrust legislation got here down on RealPage like a feather, so it seems to be just like the nation’s largest landlord and all its co-conspirators needs to be again up and operating on tweaked collusion software program very quickly. And it’s apparent by now that the billionaire crybabies acquired what they paid for by supporting Trump and demanding that Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter be gone from their respective positions on the heads of the Federal Commerce Fee and on the DOJ Antitrust Division (that’s to not assume a Kamala administration can be any higher as she was additionally within the billionaires’ pocket and refused to decide to preserving Khan on).
RealPage, reasonably than being humbled by the DOJ settlement, seems to be emboldened. The corporate, contemporary off its present from the DOJ, is embracing its function as a flag bearer for the motion to equate criminal activity by the financial elite with free speech:
“Worth gouging People for primary requirements” as an organization’s First Modification proper, is what it seems to be like in a corrupt oligarchy the place billionaires purchase elections to regulate democracy. https://t.co/cXBFk1K5aU
— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) November 26, 2025
That’s along with the free speech lawsuit the corporate has already filed towards Berkeley, California over its ordinance barring landlords from utilizing AI-driven pricing algorithms to set residential rents.
Moreover, the corporate continues to go full pace forward with surveillance pricing and AI. Over the summer time RealPage acquired Livble, a service that lets folks pay their month-to-month hire in installments. Extra from The Verge:
Livble describes itself as a “versatile” hire fee answer. Renters can cut up funds into as much as 4 installments all through the month. The service payments itself as serving to tenants “keep away from late charges and bank card charges” in addition to “construct credit score by means of hire,” nevertheless it fees $30 to $40 per mortgage…Underneath the deal, RealPage will combine Livble into its property administration software program and can deal with “all collections.”
However that’s not all Livble does:
“For underwriting tenants who wish to cut up their hire into installments over the month, Livble makes use of Plaid’s open banking knowledge.”
Plaid presents an app for folks to have extra management over their monetary knowledge. Actually its to facilitate consent to share banking knowledge with 3d events? pic.twitter.com/FJJWVE0GJz
— Lee Hepner (@LeeHepner) July 28, 2025
RealPage additionally lately unveiled its Lumina AI Workforce, which it says will characteristic “clever AI brokers that work throughout leasing, operations, services, finance, and resident engagement.”
So we’re quickly shifting in direction of a state of affairs the place housing is dominated by Wall Avenue pursuits utilizing software program that coordinates pricing and has entry to your monetary knowledge with choices more and more being made by AI. And the DOJ simply mentioned that’s A-OK.
[ad_2]
