RealPage Says DOJ Has Closed Criminal Investigation Into Rental Housing Pricing

RealPage is doubling down on its stance that its multifamily rent-setting software didn't violate antitrust laws, citing what it says is an end to a Department of Justice investigation into whether the firm broke the law.

Days after filing a motion to dismiss its civil lawsuit, RealPage said it was alerted that the DOJ's Antitrust Division had closed its criminal investigation into pricing practices in the multifamily rental industry.

The DOJ never identified RealPage as a target of the investigation, though RealPage “extensively cooperated” throughout the investigation, the Richardson, Texas-based real estate software company said in a news release issued late Friday.

“We have remained steadfast in our belief that RealPage never violated the antitrust laws,” RealPage said.

The DOJ hasn't confirmed the end of the criminal probe. It didn't immediately respond to Bisnow’s Monday request for comment and didn’t respond to other media outlets’ requests for comment last week.

RealPage still faces a federal class-action suit in a Tennessee court and a DOJ lawsuit, filed in August, for allegedly helping landlords artificially raise apartment rents across the U.S. in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington joined the DOJ civil suit, which is based in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

RealPage on Tuesday filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the case, which “is the latest in a series of baseless antitrust lawsuits concerning certain revenue management software (“RMS”) sold by RealPage.” 

In its Friday news release, RealPage said it will continue to defend itself in the remaining lawsuits, which it said are “wholly without merit.” The 35-page motion cites numerous reasons that the lawsuit is invalid, including that RealPage’s software isn’t allowed to raise rents above the competitive level.

“DOJ has not been able, despite conclusions and labels, to articulate a theory of facts that shows anticompetitive effects, such as higher prices than a competitive market would sustain,” RealPage outside counsel Stephen Weissman told reporters on a Wednesday call, Multifamily Dive reported.

The DOJ’s Antitrust Division began investigating RealPage and its rent-setting software in November 2022, following an October 2022 ProPublica report on RealPage’s YieldStar. The report cited critics’ concerns that the algorithm hurt competition and helped landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants. 

Before the DOJ opened its criminal probe in March and filed its antitrust suit in August, it faced sustained pressure to crack down on the practice.