The Department of Justice and eight states’ attorney generals filed an antitrust lawsuit against rental software company RealPage on Friday, accusing it of using algorithms to drive up rent prices nationwide. The suit alleges RealPage’s software, YieldStar, gathers sensitive information from landlords and rental companies, which it feeds into algorithms that recommend prices and practices that limit competition and force renters to pay more.
“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 wrote in a DOJ press release.
RealPage’s software reportedly manages more than 24 million rental units globally. The DOJ’s complaint accuses the company of contracting with competing landlords who agree to share “nonpublic, competitively sensitive information” about rental rates and other lease terms. RealPage then trains YieldStar’s algorithms, which generate
