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The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Texas-based real estate company RealPage, accusing it of artificially inflating rent prices across the country. The lawsuit alleges that RealPage's software uses nonpublic data from landlords to generate pricing recommendations, effectively quelling competition and leading to higher rents for millions of Americans.
According to the DOJ, RealPage's software enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents.
"Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
He further added, "The rent is too damn high, and this is one of the reasons why."
The lawsuit, filed in North Carolina, alleges that RealPage holds a monopoly in the market for commercial revenue management software, controlling 80% of the market nationwide. The software is used to manage three million rental units across the United States, most of which are in Southern states.
RealPage has denied the allegations, asserting that its customers have full control over their rent prices and can reject the algorithm’s recommendations. “RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a history of working constructively with the DOJ to show that,” a spokesperson for the company stated, according to PYMNTS.com.