Greystar Real Estate Partners, Blackstone’s LivCor and Cushman & Wakefield are among the institutional landlords accused of fixing rental prices — to the detriment of “millions” of renters.
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The U.S. Department of Justice has added six major landlords to an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against rental software maker RealPage, officials announced Tuesday.
The landlords were added to the suit via an amended complaint that accuses them of participating “in an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters,” according to a DOJ statement. The landlords are also accused of trying to set rents using “each other’s competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms.”
Collectively, the six landlords oversee 1.3 million units across the U.S. The landlords include:
- Greystar Real Estate Partners
- Blackstone’s LivCor
- Camden Property Trust
- Cushman & Wakefield Inc and Pinnacle Property Management Services
- Willow Bridge Property Company
- Cortland Management
In a statement to Inman Tuesday, Greystar said it is “disappointed that the DOJ added us and other operators to their lawsuit against RealPage.”
“Greystar has and will conduct its business with the utmost integrity,” the statement added. “At no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices. We will vigorously defend ourselves in this lawsuit.”
Inman will update this story with statements from the other companies as they respond to requests for comment.
The DOJ first announced its antitrust suit in August. At the time, the feds accused RealPage of using a rental pricing algorithm that effectively allowed landlords to share information and fix prices. The case was the first major antitrust suit to take direct aim at an algorithm, and, in an August statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that “using software as the sharing mechanism does not immunize this scheme from Sherman Act liability.”
For its part, RealPage denied wrongdoing and accused the DOJ of trying to “scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years.” The company reiterated its position last month when announcing that the DOJ had ended a separate criminal probe into multifamily rental pricing.
The antitrust case against RealPage is still ongoing, now with six landlords also in the Feds’ crosshairs. In addition to mentioning an alleged price fixing “scheme,” the DOJ’s statement on Tuesday accused the landlords of “communicating with competitors’ senior managers about rents” and participating in RealPage-hosted groups where executives discussed pricing methodology, among other things.
In addition to announcing the new amended complaint Tuesday, the DOJ also revealed in its statement that it has reached a proposed resolution with Cortland. The resolution would bar Cortland from using rivals’ competitive data to train or run pricing models.
It would also prevent the company from using third-party pricing software to set rents without a court-appointed supervisor, as well as disallow the sharing of rental prices with other property managers in order to set those prices.
The proposed resolution, known as a consent decree, still needs court approval to become final.
In a statement to Inman, Cortland said Tuesday it is “pleased to announce” the proposed resolution. The company also noted the now-ended criminal investigation, saying its conclusion means “Cortland and its employees are no longer subject to the criminal investigation that motivated the Department of Justice’s May 2024 search at Cortland’s headquarters in Atlanta.”
“We believe we were only able to achieve this result because Cortland has invested years and significant internal resources into developing a proprietary revenue management software tool that does not rely on data from external, non-public sources,” the statement continued. “The terms of Cortland’s settlement have been agreed to with the Department of Justice and will be filed with the court for its approval. We look forward to putting the federal government’s investigations behind us in 2025, as we continue to seek opportunities to invest in tools and services that will improve resident experience and the success of our managed communities.”
In addition to the DOJ, the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington have also joined the case as co-plaintiffs.
Read the amended complaint here (if the document doesn’t load, refresh the page):
Update: This story was updated after publication with statements from companies named as defendants.