April 23, 2025
RealPage Inc. and 10 of New Jersey’s largest landlords are colluding to raise rents in violation of state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws, forcing Garden State residents to overpay for housing, Attorney General Matt Platkin claimed Wednesday in a federal lawsuit.
Platkin alleges the defendants conspired to set rents in New Jersey using the company’s algorithms, exchanging private data to align prices and stifle competition. Filed under seal in New Jersey federal court, the complaint charges violations of the Sherman Act, the New Jersey Antitrust Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
“The defendants in this case unlawfully lined their pockets at the expense of New Jersey renters who struggled to pay the increasingly unlivable price levels imposed by this cartel,” Platkin said in a news conference Wednesday. “Today we’re holding them accountable for unlawful conduct that fueled the state’s affordable housing crisis and deprived New Jerseyans of their fundamental right to shelter.”
Garden State average rents are among the highest in the nation and New Jersey has a shortage of more than 200,000 affordable rental homes, the attorney general said. He added that landlords named in the complaint control a significant portion of rental properties.
“This case is about restoring competition to New Jersey’s multifamily housing market and state residents’ right to competitive rental rates,” Platkin and the acting director of the Division of Consumer Affairs, Jeremy E. Hollander, said in the 78-page complaint.
In many cases, landlords did not tell potential tenants about their use of the pricing software, the lawsuit said. In other instances, landlords told lease applicants that the software was used to calculate the market rate of the units but did not reveal that the software was intended to maximize rents.
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Representing the state of New Jersey are Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, Assistant Attorney General Brian F. McDonough, Deputy Attorneys General David Reichenberg, Jesse J. Sierant, Leslie Prentice and Blair Gerold, and Brent Johnson, Emmy L. Levens, Robert A. Braun and Aaron J. Marks of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
Read NJ AG Sues RealPage, Landlords, Claiming Rent Price ‘Cartel’.