CDT Submits Comments to DOJ in its Antitrust Enforcement Action Against RealPage

CDT submitted comments to the Department of Justice in its antitrust enforcement action against RealPage for allegedly operating an algorithm-driven price-fixing scheme that inflated apartment rental prices across the country. The comments are in support of the Department’s proposed consent decree with one of the major apartment landlord co-defendants, Cortland Management.

According to the Department’s charges, each landlord who joined the scheme submitted confidential data on its own rental prices and availabilities, both current and anticipated, in minute detail, which it knew RealPage would combine with the same confidential data from the other landlords to calculate recommended rental prices for all the landlords, which they would all follow.

Cortland has agreed to settle with the Department, to end its involvement with RealPage, to refrain from engaging in any coordination on rental prices, to submit to monitoring by the Department, and to assist the Department in the continuing investigation and enforcement action. Cortland is one of the largest apartment managers in the United States, managing, as of 2024, more than 80,000 units and more than 220 properties in the United States.

Under the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act, the Department is required to publish any proposed antitrust consent decree, to give the public 60 days to comment, and to reply to the comments. The court then ultimately determines if the proposed decree is in the public interest, and if so, enters the decree as a final judgment as to the settling defendant.

CDT’s comments explain why in our view the proposed consent decree is in the public interest.

Read the full comments.