November 2, 2023
The District of Columbia’s attorney general on Wednesday sued property management platform RealPage and more than a dozen of the city’s largest apartment building landlords, accusing them of a scheme to artificially fix rental prices in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
The lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court marks the first government antitrust enforcement action against RealPage since last year, when it was hit with more than two dozen private civil lawsuits that are now consolidated in Nashville, Tennessee, federal court.
U.S.-based plaintiffs’ law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll filed the complaint with lawyers from the D.C. attorney general’s office, led by Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Cohen Milstein and other private firms have also worked with the office on other civil lawsuits.
In a statement, Schwalb said landlords conspired to keep rental prices high using RealPage’s revenue management platform. The attorney general’s office said District residents had paid “millions of dollars above fair market prices.”
Read DC Sues Tech Company RealPage, Landlords Over Rental Prices.