DOJ Sues RealPage for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme That Harms Renters

Re:DOJ Sues RealPage for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme That Har... by sleepybrett on Monday August 26, 2024 @10:12PM (#41364030)

The rub is that if store and store b got together and negotiated a price they would stick to and not try to undercut each other, that's price fixing, and that is what realpage is doing on a MASSIVE scale.

'Cartel/Corporate' owners own ~70% of the units in Seattle. 11 total companies (big names you should know like gray star and equity residential), to the one they all use realpage. That's 70% of the market price fixed, MINIMUM.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DOJ Sues RealPage for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme That Har... by throwaway2037 on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @01:09AM (#41364714)

Before your second paragraph: I Googled about it and found this ProPublica story: https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...

The exact quote:

    > In one neighborhood in Seattle, ProPublica found, 70% of apartments were overseen by just 10 property managers, every single one of which used pricing software sold by RealPage.

To be clear, that is "one neighborhood" in Seattle. Your second paragraph makes it seem like all of Seattle. To be clear, in neighborhoods with lots of new high rise buildings, this pattern seems normal to me: About 10 companies (or less) do most of the property management.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DOJ Sues RealPage for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme That Har... by sleepybrett on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @09:46AM (#41367470)

That neighborhood is the neighborhood amazon is in South Lake Union. But as far as I can tell every corporate building in town uses them which is a wild amount of buildings.

[ Parent | on HN ]