Submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world [bot] to technology@lemmy.world
14 big landlords used software to collude on rent prices, DC lawsuit says::Suit claims employees were told pricing outside the algorithm was “unacceptable.”
This is how all industries work. There is no free market competition in anything. Bakeries collude on bread prices. Chocolateira collude on candy bar prices. Etc etc. This is what happens when government kneels to business lobbyists instead of regulating business.
Gas prices. If price fixing is illegal then why is every single station the exact same price?
To be fair, in perfect competition prices for a homogenous product would be the same everywhere.
But the reason for it in reality is that tacit collusion is not illegal (and even if they break the rules and make deals, which happens, it is hard to prove. but you don’t need explicit deals for prices to end up being the same). there has been many studies done on the gas market in partucular.
Costco and Sams have a never-ending gas price battle going on where I live and their gas prices are always 15-20% less than any other place in town. $3.39/gl at all stations except for those two and they’re $2.99/gl right now. It’s been this way for years.
Same thing is happening in Seattle and likely everywhere else.
They should be launching lawsuits like this in every state. Hopefully if this suit goes well, it helps bring rents back to Earth from where they’ve skyrocketed (though not holding my breath).
This is the best summary I could come up with:
"RealPage and the defendant landlords illegally colluded to artificially raise rents by participating in a centralized, anticompetitive scheme, causing District residents to pay millions of dollars above fair market prices,” Schwalb said in a release tied to the complaint.
RealPage and the property management firms utilizing their software were the subject of a class-action suit filed in the Southern District of California in October 2022, alleging the “cartel” of artificially inflating prices.
A developer who worked on YieldStar’s algorithm told ProPublica that rental leasing agents had “too much empathy” compared to the software’s pricing systems.
Its creation of “work groups” of would-be rival landlords could also invite antitrust scrutiny, a former federal prosecutor told ProPublica.
In response to ProPublica’s reporting, a RealPage representative said the firm used “aggregated market data from a variety of sources in a legally compliant manner.”
A slide from an internal Greystar presentation cited in the complaint suggested that “at least 95 percent” of RealPage prices should be used, as “Discipline of using revenue management increased more consistent outcomes.”
The original article contains 527 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I have hope for my place, we have to renew our lease soon. My landlord is a decent guy and he has trouble with his email so I hope he couldn’t figure that software out lol
He may not be involved tbh, it may be a management company he uses that use the software. You’d know if you send your money to him directly or to a management company.
Guys pretty old school so we send it to him and whenever we need repairs he comes to fix it. He’s a good dude. Is a true historian and loves this house, when we were touring the place he told us about every person who owned it after it was built in 1864
That being said I know even the best can’t resist money, so I can only hope
Oh gee. All this time, I thought it was coincidence that prices went up across the country in unison by identical amounts.
PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I hope people understand how this drives up rent prices in your area, it’s insane. They’re price fixing.
agent_flounder@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Theoretically that is illegal.
Penalties for this should be severe. Like, impounding company assets and destroying them.
plz1@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The fine of 1% of last quarter’s profits will ensure they learn their lesson.
onion@feddit.de 1 year ago
Turn their properties into a coop and give the shares to the tenants
Rubanski@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Corporate death penalty
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Take one of the owner’s private jets away.
buzz86us@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yup I got hit with this nonsense… Right during the pandemic when I had no money… $525->$800