RealPage Rental Housing Algorithmic Price-Fixing Antitrust Litigation
Case Overview
This landmark multidistrict antitrust litigation centers on allegations that RealPage, Inc. — whose YieldStar and AI Revenue Management software is used by landlords controlling millions of rental units — facilitated an illegal price-fixing cartel among competing apartment operators. Plaintiffs allege that by feeding competitively sensitive, non-public rental pricing data from hundreds of landlords into a shared algorithmic system, and then accepting the software's pricing recommendations en masse, competing landlords effectively coordinated rents in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The lawsuit alleges this scheme drove up rents significantly above competitive market levels, costing renters billions of dollars in overcharges. Named co-defendants include some of the largest multifamily landlords in the country, including Greystar, AvalonBay, Essex Property Trust, and Camden Property Trust, among many others.
The DOJ and more than a dozen state attorneys general have launched parallel investigations, and in August 2024 the DOJ filed its own civil antitrust lawsuit against RealPage — a significant escalation that substantially bolsters the private plaintiffs' case. The MDL in Nashville, overseen by Judge Waverly Crenshaw, has consolidated dozens of individual cases and is proceeding through discovery. RealPage was acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in 2021 for $10.2 billion. The case is widely watched as a test of how antitrust law applies to algorithmic coordination, a novel and rapidly expanding legal frontier with implications far beyond the housing market.
Who May Qualify
Renters who leased an apartment unit managed by a landlord using RealPage's YieldStar or AI Revenue Management pricing software, generally from 2016 to the present, and who paid rents that may have been artificially inflated as a result of the alleged price-fixing scheme.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did RealPage's algorithm cause my rent to go up illegally?
The lawsuit alleges that RealPage's pricing algorithm enabled landlords to coordinate rents above competitive levels, resulting in overcharges for millions of renters. If your apartment was managed by a participating landlord using RealPage software, you may have been affected.
Which landlords are named in the RealPage lawsuit?
Dozens of major national and regional landlords are named as co-defendants, including Greystar, AvalonBay Communities, Camden Property Trust, Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, and others collectively controlling millions of U.S. rental units.
Is the RealPage antitrust case a government or private lawsuit?
Both. Tens of millions of renters are pursuing a private class action in federal court in Nashville, and separately the U.S. Department of Justice filed its own civil antitrust lawsuit against RealPage in August 2024, significantly strengthening the case.