Washington AG says RealPage and landlords conspired to harm tenants, violate Consumer Protection Act

SEATTLE — The Washington state Attorney General’s Office filed suit in King County Superior Court today against software company RealPage and nine local landlords, alleging that RealPage and its software are central to a conspiracy and unfair competition by certain landlords that resulted in rapidly rising rent prices for their tenants.

The lawsuit says RealPage provides software tools to landlords that push rental prices beyond what landlords could otherwise achieve while reducing the risk that other landlords will undercut them with more competitive rates. Analysis by the Attorney General’s Office shows that in numerous markets, pricing is higher and occupancy is lower for properties managed by landlords who use RealPage’s products than for similar properties managed by landlords who don’t use RealPage.

“RealPage’s unfair practices are cheating renters and pricing families out of stable housing,” said Attorney General Nick Brown. “Washington is facing a housing crisis and we must respond with every available tool.”

Washington State was previously part of a multi-state antitrust lawsuit led by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court, but withdrew to file this challenge in state court under statutes that would cover a greater number of Washingtonians impacted by these actions. This new lawsuit alleges six violations of the state Consumer Protection Act and seeks restitution for a large number Washington renters. An estimated 800,000 leases in Washington were priced using RealPage software between 2017 and 2024.

The investigation found that RealPage’s pricing software provides landlords with a shared logic that tends to raise rents. Two types of RealPage’s pricing software collect nonpublic, competitively sensitive data from landlords to feed the algorithms. Landlords who use RealPage software agree to provide their data, knowing that the software combines their data with data from other landlords. The algorithm then recommends rents — in many cases increasing them. In feedback to RealPage about its software, one potential client said: “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing.”

Legislative leaders expressed their support for the litigation.

“The Washington Legislature has passed dozens of bills over the last three years focused on addressing housing affordability,” said House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma. I welcome AG Brown’s entry into this work and his willingness to fight against giant corporations using unfair algorithms across the State of Washington to jack up housing costs.”

“I am proud that our state is working to protect renters from this kind of collusion and conspiracy,” said Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma. “Renters deserve to have protections against unfair price-fixing, and I thank Attorney General Brown for his swift action on this issue. It is imperative that we prevent any company of taking advantage of Washington renters and that we do anything to prevent unnecessary and increased costs for people just trying to pay their rent and stay in their homes.”

The lawsuit states that RealPage’s software creates pricing recommendations that will not go below a hard floor, though they may exceed a soft ceiling at the top of the market.

RealPage also discourages pro-renter practices like price negotiations and concessions for renters and instead favors the highest possible prices in several ways. First, RealPage’s training advises new clients to set its software to automatically accept its pricing recommendations. If a landlord doesn’t want to use auto-accept, RealPage advisors are trained to convince them to turn it on.

RealPage also encourages landlords to accept its pricing recommendations by forcing them to enter an explanation any time they reject the software’s recommendations. When RealPage’s advisers see the rejections, they can escalate review to higher-level managers.

Second, RealPage software also advises landlords to keep prices high even when occupancy is down, the lawsuit asserts. The software also recommends adjusting lease timeframes to avoid a glut of apartment units hitting the market at the same time — for instance, recommending 13-month leases instead of 12. That way, rent prices don’t go down because of increased housing supply.

RealPage also organized a conspiracy of landlords through its user groups for each pricing software product, the suit claims. In user group meetings, landlords vote on changes to the pricing software, discuss competitively sensitive topics, and build anticompetitive strategies around their use of RealPage’s pricing software.

The lawsuit seeks to end RealPage’s and landlords’ illegal practices and force them to stop colluding, coordinating pricing and occupancy, sharing a pricing algorithm, and exchanging competitively sensitive nonpublic information.

Assistant Attorneys General Brian H. Rowe, Rachel A. Lumen, Sarah Smith-Levy, Miriam Stiefel, Jessica So, Helen Lubetkin, and Ashley Locke; Paralegals Alicia Stensland, Mark O’Neal, Christina Baker, Kristina Wooster, Connor Hopkins, Tracy Jacoby and Kellie Tappan; Investigator Tony Perkins; and Economic Analyst Matthew Paskash are working on the case for Washington.

The lawsuit can be found here.

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

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