U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks to reporters during a brief news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., May 4, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The Department of Justice and eight states on Friday accused software company RealPage of unlawfully scheming to undermine competition among landlords and create a monopoly that harms millions of renters.
RealPage “allows landlords to manipulate, distort, and subvert market forces,” the Justice Department said in a civil complaint in U.S. District Court in North Carolina.
“At bottom, RealPage is an algorithmic intermediary that collects, combines, and exploits landlords’ competitively sensitive information,” the antitrust lawsuit said.
“And in so doing, it enriches itself and compliant landlords at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices and honest businesses that would otherwise compete,” the DOJ alleged.
Attorney General Merrick Garland in a press conference Friday morning put it more bluntly: “Everybody knows the rent is too damn high, and we allege this is one of the reasons why.”
The DOJ is joined in its lawsuit by the attorneys general of North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
— CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.