The Washington Attorney General has filed a new lawsuit against RealPage and nine local landlords claiming they “conspired to harm tenants” and violated the Consumer Protection Act, according to a release.
The new lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court on April 3 alleging that RealPage and its software are “central to a conspiracy and unfair competition by certain landlords that resulted in rapidly rising rent prices for their tenants.”
“RealPage’s unfair practices are cheating renters and pricing families out of stable housing,” said Attorney General Nick Brown in the release. “Washington is facing a housing crisis and we must respond with every available tool.”
The lawsuit says “competition should moderate rent hikes when demand is high and drive rents down when supply is high, making housing more affordable. Prices should be the result of the natural forces of supply and demand, in this case the number of available apartment units and the number of renters seeking housing, not the highest prices that renters can pay.”
In Washington state, more than one million households—about 36% of the state’s population—are renters. In recent years, rental prices in Washington have skyrocketed, placing an unsustainable burden on renters, the lawsuit says.
“In 2024, 47% of renter households had their rent increased by over $100 per month, and 15% had their rent increased by over $250 per month. These dramatic increases often outpace wage growth, leaving many renters struggling to keep up with housing costs.
“Conspired to harm tenants”
“RealPage and its landlord-clients have been central actors in this climate of constant and staggering rent increases. RealPage has built a business out of undermining the natural forces of competition.”
The lawsuit says the way it works is that RealPage provides software tools to landlords that push rental prices beyond what landlords could otherwise achieve while reducing the risk that other landlords will undercut them with more competitive rates. Analysis by the attorney general’s office shows that in numerous markets, pricing is higher and occupancy is lower for properties managed by landlords who use RealPage’s products than for similar properties managed by landlords who don’t use RealPage.
The lawsuit provided a chart showing the differences
The investigation found that RealPage’s pricing software provides landlords with a shared logic that tends to raise rents. Two types of RealPage’s pricing software collect nonpublic, competitively sensitive data from landlords to feed the algorithms. Landlords who use RealPage software agree to provide their data, knowing that the software combines their data with data from other landlords. The algorithm then recommends rents — in many cases increasing them. In feedback to RealPage about its software, one potential client said: “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price-fixing.”
Washington State was previously part of a multi-state antitrust lawsuit led by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court, but withdrew to file this challenge in state court under statutes that would cover a greater number of Washingtonians affected by these actions.
This new lawsuit alleges six violations of the state Consumer Protection Act and seeks restitution for a large number of Washington renters. An estimated 800,000 leases in Washington were priced using RealPage software between 2017 and 2024.
The lawsuit lists RealPage and nine local landlords as the defendants, including Greystar; Cushman & Wakefield Inc./Pinnacle Property Management Services; LivCor, LLC; UDR, Inc., Prime Administration, LLC dba Prime Group; Quarterra Multifamily Communities, LLC; LaSalle Properties, LLC; MG Properties, LLC; and Sares Regis Management Company, L.P.
RealPage has said the data fed into its pricing tool is anonymized and aggregated. It said the company “uses aggregated market data from a variety of sources in a legally compliant manner.”
ProPublica is reporting that RealPage, a Texas-based real estate tech company, is facing a new barrage of questions about whether its software is helping landlords coordinate rental pricing in violation of antitrust laws.
ProPublica initially detailed how RealPage’s pricing algorithm uses competitor data to suggest new prices daily for available apartments. ProPublica raised concerns that the software, sold by RealPage, is potentially pushing rent prices above competitive levels, facilitating price fixing or both.
Read the full press release here
Read the full lawsuit here
