Washington, D.C. — In response to news that the Attorney General of D.C., Brian Schwalb, has filed an antitrust suit against RealPage and 14 residential landlords for colluding to raise prices by sharing competitive data, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“We’re thrilled to see Attorney General Schwalb take action against RealPage and a cartel of landlords for their egregious and anticompetitive use of data sharing software to collude to raise rent prices,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Already faced with a housing affordability crisis, fake listings, out of control junk fees, and other headaches, the last thing D.C. tenants should be subjected to is algorithmic price-setting that eliminates any price competition in the market. This a significant violation of the District’s antitrust laws and underscores the importance of rigorous enforcement at the state and local level to protect tenants. We stand with the D.C. AG’s efforts to rectify these wrongs, promote a fair rental housing market, and secure justice for the tens of thousands of D.C. residents affected by this district-wide housing cartel.”

Attorney General Brian Schwalb is accusing RealPage and a consortium of 14 prominent residential landlords across D.C. of orchestrating an anticompetitive scheme that has price gouged tenants out of millions of dollars. By collusively employing RealPage’s centralized pricing algorithm, these landlords systematically inflated rental costs for over 50,000 apartments, effectively strong-arming a vast number of D.C. residents into overpaying in an already tight housing market. The AG says that such coordinated manipulation not only breaches the District’s Antitrust Act, but also establishes a veritable housing cartel.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.