Federal agents raided a property management company operating in Arizona as part of an investigation into price-fixing rent, marking a distinct escalation in the renewed push to enforce consumer protection laws.
Cortland, an Atlanta-based property management company, joins nine other real estate conglomerates under investigation for creating a rental monopoly, resulting in rents across Arizona going up by more than 30% since 2022. The common thread between the 10 is RealPages, a co-defendant and consulting firm whose software they utilized to determine the maximum amount rent could be raised, then doing so in tandem in a manner Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has characterized as monopolistic.
“The conspiracy allegedly engaged in by RealPage and these landlords has harmed Arizonans and directly contributed to Arizona’s affordable housing crisis,” said Mayes. “This conspiracy stifled fair competition and essentially established a rental monopoly in our state’s two largest metro areas.”
Price collusion is still price collusion when an algorithm does the pricing for you. I hope they nail these fuckers to the wall with fines and breaking apart their companies.
We can probably thank Lina Khan, chair of FTC for this. It’s amazing to finally have someone back in the FTC that cares about protecting consumers.
I wonder who appointed her and then who voted to confirm her appointment.
You love to see it
REACH OUT TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Hello,
It has recently been widely reported that the FBI raided a corporate landlord in Arizona due to their use of RealPage to engage in price-fixing. I have reason to believe that RealPage has been used by landlords in [state] as well, so I am curious to know if [state] renters that may have been victimized by landlords using RealPage will also be able to depend on our elected officials to step in and enforce the consumer protection laws that we need in order to fight back against the wildly predatory price increases we have been experiencing from so many different directions. Please tell me this is an issue where the real people of [state], and not the corporations that speak far too loudly with their dollars, have our representatives behind our backs.
When and if wrongdoing is found, can we also expect to be fairly and fully compensated for the greedflation that landlords stole? And if those costs are too high for a particular landlord to bear, perhaps ownership of the effected properties should instead be transferred to the government to establish more low-income housing facilities and in doing so, help address crises in housing, homeless, and skyrocketing costs. What if we start treating corporations with the same uncaring hand they treat consumers, instead of handling them with kid-gloves? Can [state] citizens count on your support in keeping our people, not our corporations, as your top priority?
Respectfully, [name]
Now do them all
sounds like carteling more than monopoly but maybe that’s just a sub category
Every single industry has created one of these pricing consultancy companies where they pool their information, if they’re really going after this, the American business community is nothing but low hanging fruit.
The Supreme Court will stop it of course, that’s what they’re paid for.
Just roll the houses back to 2012, and make a price cap.
We should bring back impalement as a form of punishment, specifically corporate landlords all impaled in the town square, Vlad Dracula-style.
