Company that makes rent-setting software for landlords sued for collusion

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The lawsuit alleges that a company that makes price-setting software for apartments and nine of the nation's biggest property managers formed a Cartel to artificially inflate rents.

The lawsuit was filed days after ProPublica published an investigation raising concerns that the software, sold by Texas-based RealPage, is possibly pushing rent prices above competitive levels.

A class-action lawsuit was filed in San Diego.

A RealPage representative said in an email that the company denied the allegations and would defend against the lawsuit. The company doesn't comment on pending litigation, she said.

Property managers named in a lawsuit did not respond to a request for comment.

Some of the nation's largest landlords include Greystar, Lincoln Property Company, Equity Residential, and Mid-America Apartment Communities.

Greystar Tenants were named in the suit. There are five rented from Security Properties. They lived in San Diego, San Francisco, and two Washington state cities.

The lawsuit accused the property managers and RealPage of forming a Cartel to artificially inflate the price of and artificially decrease the supply and output of multifamily residential real estate lease.

Each night, RealPage uses an algorithm to find the best prices for available rental units. Information about the apartment being priced and the property where it is located is only part of the data the software uses. The company told ProPublica that the software takes actual rents paid to those rivals into account.