- The Department of Justice accused software company RealPage of unlawfully scheming to undermine competition among landlords and create a monopoly that harms millions of renters.
- RealPage “allows landlords to manipulate, distort, and subvert market forces,” the Justice Department said in the federal civil antitrust lawsuit.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Everybody knows the rent is too damn high, and we allege this is one of the reasons why.”
I mean, colluding with your competition to keep prices high is against the law. Yeah, they may still call their buddy across town and (illegally) coordinate what price to set the rent at, but the impact of that, vs a business that’s incentivized to keep all prices high to the benefit of them and landlords!? Not even close…