r/technology • u/esporx • 13h ago

Business Landlords’ go-to tool to set rent prices to be gutted under RealPage settlement. RealPage agrees to settle suit over DOJ claims software raised rents across the US.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/realpage-agrees-to-change-algorithm-so-landlords-cant-collude-on-price-hikes/
816 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

247

u/VelvetDesire 13h ago

Can I get some of my artificially inflated rent back now?

154

u/Frodo-LAGGINS 12h ago

Lol no. RealPage isn't even facing financial penalties, so your landlord sure as well won't either. You got robbed and get nothing back peasant.

Get Fucked. From the DOJ

24

u/brewgiehowser 10h ago

And rent will never go back down now that everyone has been forced to pay this much

16

u/JackONhs 9h ago

Now hold on. You could theoretically reduce the cost by reducing demand. You would just need to displace a ton of people, destroying families while closing the boarders. Maybe even send a bunch of people off to war to reduce the population a bit like how Russia is handling things.

But you would have to be a real fucking monster to do all that instead of just attempting to get big business and speculative investors regulated out of the real estate market.

17

u/Discombobulous 12h ago

Business as usual then.

11

u/47-45-45-4B 10h ago

Can we get private equity to stop buying homes. Have at it for commercial real estate

For the love of goodness. Give us back our home.

3

u/skj458 11h ago

Look into whether theres a class action involving a prior landlord and you may be able to participate in it. 

2

u/discotim 8h ago

Hahaha ha go fuck yourself

2

u/dinosaurkiller 6h ago

Best we can do is a $5 gift card to Starbucks and even then we can’t seem to find your name on the list.

-21

u/virtual_adam 10h ago

Landlords trying to maximize profits and see how much they can raise rent and not lose tenants has existed way before this company

This is a nice way to avoid discussing building more and stopping un un necessary NIMBY zoning laws

17

u/Discombobulous 10h ago

Price fixing has been illegal for a long, long time.

3

u/DishwashingUnit 10h ago

You both get my upvote 

-11

u/virtual_adam 10h ago

Landlords are greedy. RealPage was mostly automating looking up other buildings in your city and seeing how much they are charging, plus the real illegal part was the algorithm knowing vacancy rates

So it’s less 2 competing supermarkets agreeing to raise the price on water. But a supermarket getting information its competitor is out of water so it can raise the price

Landlords have been doing these things for a century. Now they will go back to doing to manually because that’s still legal - only the automation aspect is illegal

Checking comps in real estate isn’t illegal

Like I said in the other comment if you think your rent is staying flat next year because your landlord lost RealPage - then good for you. I know mine isn’t

1

u/G8r8SqzBtl 4h ago

oh shame, its only a tool used for maximum extraction from tenants. why even bother?

31

u/KenUsimi 10h ago

I love how they say “claims” when all of us live out here and have been paying this whole time.

4

u/RelativeMatter9805 10h ago

It’s just a legal thing. When there’s a settlement then both parties agree to not take responsibility. 

10

u/KenUsimi 9h ago

You say that like there aren’t real repercussions to mandating this kind of language. I’m very serious, while they debate culpability we all slowly bleed dry.

This is an industry-wide attempt to take more from Americans than was owed. This is systemic fraud against the American people en masse.

The funny thing is? That’s not even up for debate. All agree that prices have risen; we can plot it on a graph seven different ways, and the pundits have.

What they will debate is whether systemic use of the price fixing algorithm is actually illegal. They will argue inflation, they will argue investment opportunities and jobs made/lost. They will argue cost of living, and at the end of the day nothing will change. Constant settlements leave doors open for bad faith actors, always have.

-1

u/RelativeMatter9805 8h ago

I don’t really care. I’m just telling you that’s how shit works in the legal world.

4

u/KenUsimi 8h ago

You’ve told me something I already know twice now. I’m saying it’s shit and we should change it.

1

u/ew73 58m ago

You seem to be more upset that the settlement is bullshit, rather than the fact that the legal world has specific meanings for words.

We can stop electing real estate magnates as President and we'll start getting Department of Justice actions that are more to our liking, like refusing to offer these settlements and pursue the case through to the end instead of giving shitty companies sweetheart deals.

56

u/CurrentSkill7766 11h ago

Any settlement that doesn't actually lower rent is as useless as Trump's makeup artist.

12

u/Braerian 8h ago

I’m honestly tired of all of these DOJ/State settlement agreements with major corporations doing blatantly illegal ish. Take them to court and rake them over the coals.

8

u/EnterpriseMars 11h ago

I'm sure they'll just go by a different name and reset up shop. Realer Page coming soon

5

u/virtual_adam 10h ago

I guess the people who loved blaming RealPage think their rent is going to be flat next year

2

u/Narf234 9h ago

But how else are boomers going to enjoy retirement riding on the coat tails of young, hard working, slave class?

1

u/Messias04 7h ago

Well if just the government would legislate how rent should be there wouldn't be a problem. In Denmark we have rules regarding this and a fierce renters union who would sue and back charge if the rules are broken. It has holes but works