RealPage Says Rental Pricing Tech Is Misunderstood, but Landlords Aren’t So Sure

Yardi Systems, different US spot absorption company, is besides facing a people enactment suit regarding antitrust violations for artificially inflating rent prices. The institution has said it did “nothing illegal,” arsenic it does not mandate rent prices done its bundle oregon marque “collusive pricing decisions.”

Typical rental costs successful Phoenix person accrued by much than astir $500 a period from April 2020 to 2024, and by astir $400 successful Washington, DC, successful the aforesaid period, according to Zillow.

Renters person besides filed galore people enactment suits against RealPage and spot owners that person been consolidated. Some landlords named successful those settled claims earlier this year. The tribunal threw retired a suit regarding terms fixing for pupil lodging but has said the people enactment from renters can spell forward. Attorneys representing immoderate of the plaintiffs successful the people enactment did not respond to requests to comment.

RealPage laid disconnected astir 4 percent of unit successful June. “RealPage is hyper-focused connected innovation and accelerating its concern maturation successful 2024 and beyond, and arsenic a effect has made the determination to destruct a tiny fig of roles wrong the company,” Jennifer Bowcock, a spokesperson for the company, says. The layoffs were not connected to the antitrust lawsuit, she says. Thoma Bravo, the proprietor of RealPage, did not respond to a petition for remark for this story.

As of 2020, RealPage said it was collecting information connected immoderate 16 cardinal rental units crossed the US. There are 44 million renter households successful the US, and astir 22 cardinal rental units are owned by for-profit businesses. RealPage grew erstwhile it acquired Lease Rent Options (LRO) successful 2017, aft clearing antitrust scrutiny by the Justice Department. The DOJ did not remark connected questions from WIRED astir its reported probe into RealPage oregon its support of RealPage’s acquisition of Lease Rent Options successful 2017.

When asked astir the latest successful the probe, RealPage referred to a information of its caller lengthy statement, which said: “The DOJ extensively reviewed LRO and YieldStar successful 2017, without objecting to, overmuch little challenging, immoderate diagnostic of the products.” RealPage besides says that its “products are fundamentally the aforesaid today” arsenic they were erstwhile the acquisition received approval.

In June, The New York Times asked adjunct US lawyer wide Jonathan Kanter, the Justice Department’s apical antitrust official, if helium would presumption an AI instrumentality communicating pricing accusation arsenic the aforesaid arsenic humans colluding, with the question referencing the reported RealPage investigation. Kanter replied: “I often accidental that if your canine bites somebody, you’re liable for your canine biting somebody. If your AI fixes prices, you’re conscionable arsenic responsible.”

The Justice Department besides past twelvemonth filed a statement of interest successful the RealPage combined people enactment lawsuit, arsenic the lawsuit could go a precedent setter successful algorithmic pricing. The connection mirrored Kanter’s statement that the method of terms mounting doesn’t matter, and algorithms are conscionable the latest improvement successful accusation gathering and sharing.

“In-person handshakes gave mode to telephone and fax, and aboriginal to email. Algorithms are the caller frontier,” the Justice Department argued successful a connection of involvement it filed successful the people enactment suit against RealPage and landlords. “And, fixed the magnitude of accusation an algorithm tin entree and digest, this caller frontier poses an adjacent greater anti-competitive menace than the last.”