(The Center Square) – Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum was one of eight state attorney generals to join the US Department of Justice in an antitrust enforcement action against RealPage Inc. late last week.
The plaintiffs contend that RealPage Inc. engaged in anti-competitive practices, hurting renters.
The DOJ and lawmakers contend that RealPage allows landlords to use software to determine rental property prices, hindering competition and increasing rental costs.
In doing so, the DOJ contends that the company violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
“At a time when housing affordability is a top concern for Oregonians – and for countless Americans beyond our state’s borders – the issues of fairness and competition could not be more critical,” Attorney General Rosenblum said in a statement. “RealPage’s use of its AI pricing algorithm effectively acts as a hub for property managers and landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and to engage in a pricing alignment scheme to avoid competition. It undermines a fair rental market and constitutes a violation of Oregon and federal antitrust laws (the Sherman Act).”
The lawsuit does not name any property managers or landlords as defendants, nor does it seek damages on behalf of tenants, according to the release from Rosenblum’s office.
Though the lawsuit has bipartisan support, former Virginia governors Bob McDonnell and Jim Gilmore and former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli penned a letter to Republican attorneys general earlier this month urging them to not join the lawsuit against RealPage Inc.
“We ask that you choose not to… [sign] onto an unjustified, anti-free market suit, which would create pricing knowledge gaps – discouraging future building and investing in the housing industry and making today’s problems worse, not better,” they wrote, as The Center Square previously reported.
Other state attorneys general who signed onto the lawsuit are from: North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington.