Landlords Agree To Pay $218M To Settle Price-Fixing Claims In RealPage Antitrust Case
Real estate behemoths involved in the sprawling antitrust case against revenue management firm RealPage have agreed to pay a combined $218M in settlements and to stop using nonpublic data to help set rent levels.
Eleven firms have now struck deals agreeing to pay seven- or eight-figure settlements, according to a Thursday filing by attorneys representing renters in the class-action suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
As part of the agreement, the firms have agreed to remove nonpublic rental data from databases allegedly used by RealPage’s rent-setting software formerly known as Yieldstar and to stop using the software to set prices for their rental apartments.
The settlement agreement includes previously disclosed settlements, like the $56M deal with Equity Residential and Camden Property Trust and Mid-America Communities' $53M payouts reached with prosecutors in January.
The other landlord settlements revealed in the filing are:
- Cortland Management, $18M
- Lincoln Property Co., $12M
- Highmark Residential, $7.5M
- RPM, $7.5M
- Related Cos., $5M
- Sares Regis Management Co., $3M
- Trammell Crow Residential/Crow Holdings, $2.1M
- Rose Associates, $1M
The firms denied any liability as part of their settlements. Camden, Equity Residential and Mid-America Communities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The settlements are part of a broader class-action suit alleging that the real estate companies and RealPage colluded to push up rents and follow a $141.8M settlement with 27 firms that the court signed off on in November.
Days later, RealPage reached a settlement agreement with federal prosecutors. The court didn’t impose any monetary penalties for the firm but required the company to change how its software suggests rents for tenants.
RealPage agreed to cooperate in a separate class-action suit in North Carolina as part of the federal settlement and wouldn't admit liability as part of the settlement.
The lawsuits stem from a 2022 ProPublica investigation that documented how landlords were sharing their internal rent figures with YieldStar, which used an algorithm to show landlords they could increase their rents much more than they had been.
States and the federal government filed the suits, which are winding down via the settlement agreements. In recent years, cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco have passed laws banning the use of algorithmic software to set rents.
RealPage has pushed back against those efforts, arguing that the cities are overstepping their legal authority and that it is being scapegoated for the nation's undersupply of housing. A rule blocking local governments from regulating the use of artificial intelligence was initially included in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act but was removed from the final version of the law.
