Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Decree Would Prohibit Algorithmic Coordination and Exchanging Competitively Sensitive Data with Competitors
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a proposed settlement today to resolve the United States’ claims against Willow Bridge Property Company LLC, as part of its ongoing enforcement action in the Middle District of North Carolina against algorithmic coordination, the use of competitors’ competitively sensitive data, and other anticompetitive practices in rental markets across the country. Today’s proposed settlement builds on the Justice Department’s success in obtaining proposed settlements in the same enforcement action against RealPage Inc. and three other large landlords, Cortland Management LLC, Greystar Management Services LLC, and LivCor LLC.
As alleged in Plaintiffs’ Jan. 7, 2025 complaint, Willow Bridge, alongside five other landlord co-defendants, actively engaged in a scheme to set their rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information through pricing algorithms. Willow Bridge and these other landlords shared competitively sensitive data to generate pricing recommendations using RealPage’s algorithms, which also included anticompetitive rules that aligned pricing. Moreover, Willow Bridge and the other landlords spoke with one another on competitively sensitive topics, including pricing strategies, rents, and parameters for RealPage’s software.
“Affordability for American consumers is only achieved when competition thrives, which requires companies to make independent pricing decisions,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “Companies cannot share sensitive data and manipulate AI tools or algorithms to produce market aligned pricing. That is not only illegal, but exploitative of Americans’ everyday housing needs. This Department will not stand for it.”
“Corporate landlords have been destabilizing the rental housing market for too long,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Sarrine of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division will remain proactive in taking affirmative measures to stop pricing algorithms from harming renters.”
If approved by the court, the proposed consent decree would require Willow Bridge to:
- Refrain from using any anticompetitive algorithm that generates pricing recommendations using its competitors’ competitively sensitive data or that incorporates certain anticompetitive features;
- Refrain from sharing competitively sensitive information with competitors;
- Accept a court-appointed monitor if it uses a third-party pricing algorithm that is not certified pursuant to the terms of the consent decree;
- Refrain from attending or participating in RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords; and
- Cooperate with the United States’ claims against other defendants.
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any interested person should submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days following the publication to Danielle Hauck, Acting Chief, Technology and Digital Platforms Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 7050, Washington, DC 20530. At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
Willow Bridge is a residential property manager headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Note: See the Proposed Final Judgment here, the Stipulation and Order here, and the Competitive Impact Statement here.