The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has reportedly opened up an investigation into RealPage, the real estate technology company accused of contributing to higher-than-normal rent prices. According to a report from ProPublica, the DOJ is looking into whether the company’s rent-setting software allows landlords to coordinate and raise rent across the nation.
This comes after last month’s report from ProPublica, which revealed that RealPage’s YieldStar software uses an algorithm to “help landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants.” As noted by ProPublica, YieldStar’s algorithm uses the non-public rental rates gathered from the landlords and property managers that are its clients. YieldStar then repackages that information in an anonymized form to make rental rate recommendations to its users, indirectly giving landlords access to their competitors’ pricing.
Read more about this at theverge.com