The Department of Justice reached a settlement with RealPage Inc. that bars the company from using up-to-the-minute confidential data to produce rent recommendations, part of an effort to stop what prosecutors called “algorithmic collusion.” The deal, announced after a yearlong antitrust suit, would not require RealPage to pay damages or to admit wrongdoing and still needs a judge’s sign-off.
RealPage provides daily price suggestions to landlords and property managers across the U.S. While clients are free to ignore those recommendations, critics have argued the software’s access to large pools of nonpublic information allowed implicit coordination among competing landlords and pushed rents higher.
DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater said the settlement avoids a costly trial and that RealPage “was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price.” Under the proposed terms, RealPage may no longer use real-time nonpublic data to generate price recommendations, and any nonpublic information used to train its algorithms must be at least one year old. Slater added in a video statement, “It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm.”
RealPage counsel Stephen Weissman welcomed the settlement and pushed back on critics, saying there has been “a great deal of misinformation about how RealPage’s software works.” He said the company’s historical use of aggregated, anonymized nonpublic data “has led to lower rents, less vacancies, and more procompetitive effects.”
Some advocates and legal observers criticized the agreement as a missed opportunity to impose stronger limits on algorithmic price-setting. Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel for the American Economic Liberties Project, called the case “the tip of the spear” and warned the deal contains loopholes that could allow continued influence over rents even with older data. Hepner also noted the lack of damages paid by RealPage, pointing out that other companies facing similar claims have paid millions to settle.
The RealPage case has spurred a string of related settlements and policy responses. More than two dozen property management companies have resolved lawsuits tied to the software. Greystar, the nation’s largest landlord, agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action and $7 million to resolve a separate lawsuit brought by nine states. At the state and local level, governors in California and New York have signed laws targeting rent‑setting tools, and cities including Philadelphia and Seattle have enacted ordinances restricting such systems.
Ten states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington—joined the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit but were not part of Monday’s settlement.