PRESSURE
GROWS ON REAL ESTATE TECH COMPANY ACCUSED OF COLLUDING WITH LANDLORDS TO JACK UP APARTMENT RENTS
By Heather Vogell , ProPublica
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 .
Seventeen Democratic members of the U . S . House of Representatives sent a letter on November 14 th to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission asking the agencies to investigate RealPage ’ s rent-setting software . In an October 15 story , ProPublica detailed how RealPage ’ s pricing algorithm uses competitor data to suggest new prices daily for available apartments .
In the letter , Reps . Jesús “ Chuy ” García and Jan Schakowsky , both from Illinois , and other Democratic leaders said that if big property managers and RealPage formed a cartel to artificially inflate rents and decrease the supply of apartments , they could face “ potential criminal prosecution .”
The representatives noted that RealPage became dominant in the industry after it purchased its largest competitor in 2017 . The Justice Department reviewed the merger but allowed it to proceed .
“ Our constituents cannot afford to have anticompetitive — and potentially per se illegal — practices drive up prices for essential goods and services at a time when a full-time , minimum-wage salary does not provide a worker enough money to rent a two-bedroom apartment in any city across this country ,” they said .