The nation’s largest landlord, Greystar, has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to end its participation in algorithmic rent-pricing schemes, according to a release.
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a proposed settlement to resolve the United States’ claims against Greystar Management Services LLC as part of its ongoing enforcement against algorithmic coordination and other anticompetitive practices in rental markets across the country, according to the release.
The settlement proposal was filed in the federal district court for the middle district of North Carolina.
Greystar manages almost 950,000 rental units across the country.
“As alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint, Greystar and other landlords, including five co-defendants, shared competitively sensitive data to generate pricing recommendations using RealPage’s algorithms, which also included anticompetitive rules that aligned competitors’ pricing.
“In addition, Greystar and other landlords discussed competitively sensitive topics — including pricing strategies, rents, and selected parameters for RealPage’s software — directly with each other,” according to the release.
What the Settlement to End Algorithmic Rent Pricing Says
If approved by the court, the proposed consent decree would require Greystar to:
- Refrain from using any anticompetitive algorithm that generates pricing recommendations using its competitors’ sensitive data or that incorporates certain anticompetitive features;
- Refrain from sharing competitively sensitive information with competitors;
- Accept a court-appointed monitor if it uses a third-party pricing algorithm that is not certified pursuant to the terms of the consent decree;
- Refrain from attending or participating in RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords; and
- Cooperate with the United States’ monopolization claims against RealPage.
“American greatness has always depended on free-market competition, and nowhere is competition more important than in making housing affordable again,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the release.
Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said the department is committed to promoting competition to help working class Americans pay for life’s necessities, including rent.
“Whether in a smoke-filled room or through an algorithm, competitors cannot share competitively sensitive information or align prices to the detriment of American consumers,” she said.
“Greystar remains committed to being at the forefront of innovation in service of its clients and residents, all within the bounds of the law,” the company said in a statement.
ProPublica reported in 2022 that some of the biggest landlords in the country were using an algorithm developed by RealPage to set rents on open units. RealPage’s algorithm uses data collected from its clients — landlords who compete with each other for renters — to create price recommendations.
In August 2024, the DOJ and several state attorneys general, sued RealPage for “its unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing and to monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software.”
Read the full proposed settlement agreement here.
