DOJ sues software firm RealPage for allegedly helping landlords collude to keep rents high
DOJ sues software firm RealPage for allegedly helping landlords collude to keep rents high
The DOJ accused RealPage of unlawfully scheming to undermine competition among landlords and create a monopoly that harms millions of renters.
- The Department of Justice 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 the federal civil antitrust lawsuit.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Everybody knows the rent is too damn high, and we allege this is one of the reasons why.”
"Allows landlords to manipulate.." What are we saying? They shuffle the responsibility of being an asshole onto the software? End of the day landlords were greedy bitch's.
I mean, colluding with your competition to keep prices high is against the law. Yeah, they may still call their buddy across town and (illegally) coordinate what price to set the rent at, but the impact of that, vs a business that's incentivized to keep all prices high to the benefit of them and landlords!? Not even close...
They shuffle the responsibility of being an asshole onto the software?
That's quite literally it. It's much easier to raise rents when the magic computer tells you to do it. Then no human in your organization actually has to take responsibility for the decision.
I don't see the problem here. Yes, I'd rather see landlords themselves punished for price fixing, but that's unlikely to happen because it involves prosecuting a huge number of defendants on charges that are hard to prove. Depriving them of software that's tailor made to facilitate price fixing seems like a good first step. Who knows, a successful suit against the software company could end to making it a lot easier to sue the landlords who used it.
If you want more reasons to hate landlords head over to the r/landlords subreddit. The people there are some of the nastiest, heartless people you will ever see.
This is great! Actual work being done on the sky-high rent prices.
Yeah, now where’s my unredacted Mueller Report you fuck.
If Kamala wins, I hope she chooses somebody with some more teeth as the AG. I like Doug Jones personally
I love his work in Star Trek Discovery.
Has this guy won any of the high profile cases he’s brought to DOJ?
In 2024, the DOJ has collected over a billion dollars in plea agreements across 3 of the 6 cases brought. The other 3 appear to be unsettled.
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/related-enforcement-actions-2024
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https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/23/doj-realpage-landlord-rent-collusion-antitrust.html
This one is still net positive?! Lemmy's voting system must be malfunctioning or something.