Why U.S. renters are taking corporate landlords to court
Publishing timestamp: 2024-02-03 12:04:59
Summary
The article discusses a group of lawsuits accusing large landlords of price-fixing market rate rent in the United States. The lawsuits allege that landlords are sharing competitively sensitive data through RealPage, a real estate software provider, which then sets artificially high rents. Tenants claim that their landlords are using software to charge whatever the software tells them to charge. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a statement of interest in the case, and the Attorney General of Washington, D.C. has filed a complaint on antitrust grounds. RealPage denies the allegations and states that its landlord customers are under no obligation to take their price suggestions. The article also mentions that asking rents in the U.S. have ticked down, but well-located landlords may still have pricing power.
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