RealPage lawsuit - Good or not? Collusion to drive up rent pricing.

[neurosis]

I don't know if anyone has been following this?  Since this is a topic that has come up a couple of times; RealPage is a company that created software that allows big corporate (and other) to collude together to raise rent prices.

This isn't the first time there has been a lawsuit like this, although it was in a different industry.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that since it's the current administration doing the suing, it's not going to be popular among conservatives.   My question would be, why not? 


https://www.axios.com/2024/08/29/realpage-doj-lawsuit


"How it works: RealPage is typically used by big landlords and property managers at more expensive rental properties. When prices rise in those kinds of buildings, it has a knock-on effect on the rest of the market.

As higher-income renters get priced out of high-end buildings, they trickle into lower-end rentals, effectively driving up prices for all kinds of apartments — even the little mom-and-pop places that don't use RealPage."

[YoDoug]

Capitalism is amoral and the greatest thing ever given to mankind. It can do no wrong and anybody that disagrees is a communist.

[Jeff]

Capitalism is amoral and the greatest thing ever given to mankind. It can do no wrong and anybody that disagrees is a communist.

Yes but from the sounds of it, they're creating a monopoly without creating a monopoly.
And a monopoly is illegal.

[beej]

Capitalism is amoral and the greatest thing ever given to mankind. It can do no wrong and anybody that disagrees is a communist.

or worse....a Democrat!!! or worser than that...a vegetarian!!!

[CNCAppsJames]

They may not be operating precisely as a monopoly, from my seats, they do indeed seem to be operating in the spirit of a monopoly.

I haven't paid as close attention to this one as I kind of want to, but,the limited articles and commemtary I've seen, I do feel as though in this case,  "Capitalism" is most definitely on trial... and wrongly so IMHO.

No other economic system on the planet has lifted more people's economic reality than Capitalism.  NO. OTHER.

No other economic systems on the planet has claimed more lives than Communism or Socialism. So if people want that, hey, there are plenty of places where they can go an live under that system.... DON'T BRING THAT SHIT HERE!

[JParis]

DON'T BRING THAT SHIT HERE!

Too late

[neurosis]

I haven't paid as close attention to this one as I kind of want to, but,the limited articles and commemtary I've seen, I do feel as though in this case,  "Capitalism" is most definitely on trial... and wrongly so IMHO.

I hope that wont be the way it's framed.

[RobertELee]

I'm all for fair pricing(especially in things like housing) and businesses making money. However this feels like the first step towards price fixing.

[neurosis]

Washington State has already filed a lawsuit against Realpage.

I hate Bob Furguson, but occasionally he will do something worth while.

AG Ferguson files antitrust lawsuit asserting RealPage helps landlords conspire to inflate rental prices in Washington

https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-ferguson-files-antitrust-lawsuit-asserting-realpage-helps-landlords-conspire

Washington joins 8 AGs, federal government accusing RealPage and landlords of unlawfully working together to boost profits

SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson partnered with a bipartisan group of eight attorneys general and the federal Department of Justice to file a lawsuit today accusing a national software company of conspiring with landlords to inflate rental prices.

The lawsuit accuses RealPage of sharing competitively sensitive, nonpublic data through its software with competing landlords to help them raise rents to maximize profits. An estimated 800,000 leases in Washington were priced using RealPage revenue management software since 2017.

One potential RealPage client called the company's model "classic price fixing."

In one neighborhood in Seattle, ProPublica found, 70% of apartments were overseen by just 10 property managers, every single one of which used pricing software sold by RealPage.

[Del.]

So what cities and states is this happening?

[Incogneeto]

So what cities and states is this happening?

They are buyin the shit out of it in Vegas.

[neurosis]

So what cities and states is this happening?

https://www.realpage.com/analytics/market-coverage-map/