Blackstone's LivCor Settles DOJ's Alleged Rental Price-Fixing Claims
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
LivCor, one of the largest landlords in the United States, has entered into a proposed consent decree with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve price manipulation claims made by the department, the DOJ said in a Dec. 23 statement.
On Jan. 7, the DOJ announced it was suing tech company RealPage and six landlords, including LivCor, which operates under asset management company Blackstone. The department accused the landlords of using RealPage’s software to participate in algorithmic pricing schemes that harmed renters.
In its latest statement, the DOJ said LivCor and other landlords “shared competitively sensitive data to generate pricing recommendations using RealPage’s algorithms, which also included anticompetitive rules that aligned their pricing.”
“In addition, LivCor and other landlords discussed competitively sensitive topics—including pricing strategies, rents, and selected parameters for RealPage’s software—directly with each other,” it said.
The tactics aimed to decrease competition among landlords with regard to apartment pricing, thereby harming millions of renters in the United States, the DOJ said in January.
RealPage’s actions ended up enriching itself and the landlords “at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices and honest businesses that would otherwise compete,” the department said in its lawsuit.
The proposed consent decree between the DOJ and LivCor prohibits algorithmic coordination and the exchange of sensitive data with competitors.
LivCor is required to refrain from taking part in or attending meetings involving competing landlords that are hosted by RealPage. The company must also cooperate with the United States’ claims against other defendants in the case.
In the case that LivCor uses a third-party pricing algorithm not certified in line with the terms of the consent decree, it must allow a court-appointed monitor, the department said.
The decree must now be approved by the court.
“The Trump-Vance Administration is committed to an economy that works for all Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater from the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
“Landlords across America are on notice that the competition laws protect renters from the harms caused by competitors sharing competitively sensitive information or aligning prices, whether through an algorithm or otherwise.”
The Epoch Times reached out to LivCor for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
The agreement with LivCor follows the DOJ’s obtaining consent decrees from RealPage and two of the landlords from the January complaint—Cortland Management LLC and Greystar Management Services LLC.
RealPage Agreement
RealPage had settled the claims brought by the DOJ last month. According to the proposed content judgment filed on Nov. 24 in a federal court, the company is barred from using competitors’ real-time, nonpublic data to generate rent recommendations.
The decree requires RealPage to remove features from its software that discourage landlords from cutting prices.
Texas-based RealPage denied any wrongdoing and said the agreement provides clarity while avoiding costly litigation. According to the company, the deal includes no admission of liability and carries no financial penalties.
“This resolution marks an important milestone for RealPage, our customers, and the multifamily industry,” said Dirk Wakeham, RealPage president. The company is “part of the solution to addressing the cost of housing,” he said. Moreover, RealPage’s tools help operators make “informed, independent decisions in a complex housing market,” he added.
The company said the agreement formalizes changes that it had been implementing over the past year.
The DOJ said the settlement restores free-market competition for millions of American renters.
Slater criticized RealPage’s system for having replaced independent pricing decisions, and said the deal was a big step in ensuring that rental housing markets remained “fair and competitive.”
“It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm,” she said. “It is a win for renters, and it means more affordable options for Americans trying to make ends meet.”
Meanwhile, the DOJ recently filed a statement of interest in another case related to protecting the interests of homebuyers in the real estate market, according to a Dec. 19 DOJ statement.
The lawsuit, brought by multiple buyers, accused real estate brokerages and the National Association of Realtors, a trade association of brokerages, of entering into anticompetitive agreements. These deals ended up inflating broker commissions, raising home prices for Americans.
In its statement of interest, the DOJ argued that competition among brokerages is critical to protect American homebuyers.
“Purchasing a home is the single biggest purchase most Americans make in a lifetime,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater, from the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
“Today’s soaring housing prices make competition in real estate brokerage more important than ever. Antitrust laws are key to safeguarding competition, which reduces prices and improves services for homebuyers.”