| David O. Fisher
DOJ, Cartels, Price Fixing
The American Antitrust Institute’s (AAI) Senior Counsel David O. Fisher has published a commentary critically examining the DOJ’s proposed agreement settling its antitrust suit against algorithmic software provider RealPage, United States v. RealPage, No. 1:24-cv-00710-WLO-JLW (M.D.N.C.). In the commentary, Fisher examines the theoretical purpose of the agreement and what its terms mean in practice, raising important questions regarding the settlement’s ability to achieve its goals.
Fisher explains that RealPage serves as an algorithmic cartel manager, allowing multifamily housing landlords to coordinate pricing decisions by collecting each competitors’ pricing information and setting common pricing rules. Although the proposed settlement appears aimed at preventing RealPage from carrying out these functions, Fisher notes that the actual terms of the agreement may allow RealPage to continue to serve this role in practice. In particular, there is some ambiguity about whether RealPage may continue to use the real-time data of all of its software licensees as an input to make price recommendations to any one licensee. In addition, the scope and quantity of competitor data that property owners can collect and use to request price recommendations remains unclear. It is also unclear whether, notwithstanding the agreement’s data use restrictions, RealPage may continue to recommend higher prices to competing landlords in a way that raises market prices above the competitive level. Fisher concludes that the settlement is likely to influence future agreements and business models, and that DOJ must address these questions so that renters and the public can properly evaluate the settlement’s efficacy.
Read the full commentary: Closing Costs: A Critical Examination of the DOJ’s Proposed RealPage Settlement
