Cushman, Camden Property among landlords sued by Justice Department

The Justice Department, together with its state co-plaintiffs, said it filed an amended complaint today in its antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, to sue six landlords “for participating in algorithmic pricing schemes that harmed renters.” The amended complaint alleges the landlords – Greystar Real Estate Partners, Blackstone’s (BX) LivCor, Camden Property Trust (CPT), Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), Willow Bridge Property, and Cortland Management – “participated in an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters. Together, these landlords operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia.” The Attorneys General of Illinois and Massachusetts joined the amended complaint as co-plaintiffs, increasing the total number of State and Commonwealth co-plaintiffs to 10. At the same time, the Justice Department filed a proposed consent decree with Cortland that requires it to “cooperate with the government, stop using its competitors’ sensitive data to set rents and stop using the same algorithm as its competitors without a corporate monitor.”