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A important national antitrust lawsuit complete algorithmic rent-setting via Realpage’s application has been settled, per filings in RealPage Inc. Rental Software Antitrust Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division.
The court approved the settlements, “including the Settlement Amounts, the releases, and the dismissal alongside prejudice of the Action as to the Settling Defendants,” and established that the settlements are fair and adequate to the settling class, according to the Oct. 15 filing.
In delayed 2022 and first 2023, a slew of class-action lawsuits were submitted against Realpage and concerning 50 of the largest flat owners and operators, alleging that the Richardson, Texas-based application provider enabled landlords to collude to lift rent prices beyond free-market levels in infringement of antitrust law. Those cases were centralized into one in April 2023.
Settlement agreements came in waves, alongside 11 accused landlords reaching 14 category settlements in May for $218 myriad and 27 landlords alongside 26 settlements value additional than $141.8 myriad in October 2025. The plaintiffs asked for category certification on Oct. 2.
The colony category includes U.S. multifamily renters who paid any owner or controller on a asset that used Realpage’s Revenue Management Solutions, Lease Rent Options, YieldStar and/or AI Revenue Management at any period between Oct. 18, 2018 through Nov. 21, 2025, per the filing.
None of the companies admitted error or liability. They did, however, concur to halt providing Realpage alongside their nonpublic data for use as an input in Realpage’s income administration system’s cost recommendations, and to halt using Realpage’s RMS in ways that use competitors’ non-public data to communicate pricing recommendations.
Whether the colony agreements “really volition activity to bounds the capability of these firms to coordinate alongside all other, to communicate alongside all other, that's the item that I can't inform study the decree,” Peter Carstensen, antitrust expert and prof of law emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Multifamily Dive.
The settlements recommendation direction to the companies providing rent-pricing models, according to Carstensen.
Looking ahead, “the inquiry for any particular industry is: How much are they giving up by restricting what they do? Are there moves they can create accordant alongside the decree that would authorize them to established a small additional coordination in pricing?” Carstensen said.
States tried to halt settlements
Not everyone is blessed alongside the settlements.
After the accused landlords asked for final approval of their settlements on Sept. 25, attorneys broad from the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington clashed the agreements, saying that they could “unlawfully restrict” their own distinct lawsuits. The AGs had raised specified concerns following the first collection of colony agreements final November.
However, Judge Waverly Crenshaw again denied their request to refuse the settlements, saying in an Oct. 9 filing that “the projected releases do not injure the State AGs’ autonomous sovereign or quasi-sovereign interests,” but added that he would obtain their concerns into consideration.
Although the DOJ and province AGs alongside antitrust concerns typically activity together, there are a expanding figure of fights between states and the national authorities complete settlements correct now, according to Carstensen.
“What is distinct current in the second Trump administration is that the Justice Department and Trade Commission are bringing cases and settling them, and the states have brought the identical case but are not settling on the identical terms,” Carstensen said. “You're looking at the states not having confidence in the Justice Department or the Trade Commission to do the correct thing.”
Per the final settlement, all claims against the defendants are permanently closed, apart from anywhere expressly outlined in the agreement, according to the Oct. 15 filing.
“This dismissal does not affect, release, or impair any assertion against any Defendant or alleged co-conspirator that is not a Settling Defendant,” Waverly stated in the filing. Furthermore, the court’s certification of the colony category “is for colony purposes lone and is without prejudice to, or waiver of, any defense, argument, or stance of any Party alongside regard to any another category in the Action or any another action.”
In November 2025, the U.S. Justice Department settled alongside Realpage in a connected 2024 lawsuit that claimed the application provider enabled landlords to collude to lift rent prices. Several akin province and local lawsuits are ongoing.
“The national colony is what it is, but it's not the final term necessarily,” Carstensen said.
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