DOJ Settles With RealPage Over Algorithmic Rent-Setting Software
RealPage's algorithmic rent-setting software used nonpublic, competitively sensitive data shared among landlords to recommend rent prices, which prosecutors said enabled landlords to compete less and boost prices in ways that could violate antitrust laws.
How it works
Common implementation structure
How this type of workflow is generally built, generalized across documented cases — not tied to any one vendor's stack. Click any stage to read what happens there. Specific products that implement these stages appear in “Tools commonly seen” below.
RealPage settled with the DOJ, agreeing to stop offering software that uses nonpublic competitively sensitive data to recommend rents, cease market surveys gathering such data, and remove or redesign features that restrict rent decreases or align competitor pricing.
What failed first
The software facilitated sharing of nonpublic competitive pricing data among landlords and included features that restricted rent decreases or aligned pricing among competitors, which prosecutors characterized as algorithmic collusion replacing traditional cartel coordination.