US unveils antitrust accord on software used in rental market

US officials announced a proposed antitrust settlement Monday with a technology company whose software platform employed algorithms that allegedly permitted landlords to collude on rent prices.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled a proposed settlement with RealPage that restricts the data that can be fed into the platform and installs an independent monitor to ensure compliance, US authorities said in a news release.

The accord, negotiated by President Donald Trump's Justice Department, must be approved by a federal judge.

AI enables landlords to conspire on rents

The case dates back to a US suit filed in August 2024 by former president Joe Biden's DOJ that had accused the RealPage of utilising artificial intelligence-powered algorithms to enable landlords to lift rent prices by sharing real-time pricing inputs and other sensitive non-public data from competing landlords.

The venture resulted in allegedly higher rents in a scheme then-Attorney General Merrick Garland described as "classic price fixing." 

DOJ officials described the case as the first time US prosecutors have targeted anticompetitive behavior centered on computer algorithms. 

Under Monday's settlement unveiled by Trump appointee Abigail Slater, the inputs would be limited to "historic or backward-looking nonpublic data" at least 12 months old, the DOJ press release said.

"Competing companies must make independent pricing decisions, and with the rise of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools, we will remain at the forefront of vigorous antitrust enforcement," Slater said.

Another provision restricts the use of data for areas narrower than at the state level, which is broader than the market-level data cited in the original complaint.

RealPage, which is based in Texas and backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, emphasized in a statement that the accord includes no findings or admissions of liability and no financial penalties

The settlement overall "essentially commits RealPage to the modifications to its revenue management solutions that it already has been implementing since over a year ago," the company said.