DOJ forcing Greystar to stop sharing information with competitors

CHARLOTTE — Greystar manages 108 communities in Charlotte, according to its website, with six of them located in the heart of NoDa.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: ‘It’s insane’: Tenants react to lawsuit against landlords accused of using AI to raise rent prices

Now their renters are getting some justice, as the DOJ forces the company to stop sharing its rental pricing with competitors.

Angelica and Jack are homeowners now, but they rented for years in Midtown and South End, so they know how hard it is to save for a home. They said it “definitely wasn’t cheap.”

“It’s really difficult honestly,” said Angelica Szarka. “If you’re not good at budgeting, it’s really hard because they keep trying to raise the rent every year.”

According to the US Department of Justice, those rent increases are due to collusion, not capitalism.

Channel 9 reported in March of last year that state and federal investigators were going after multiple corporate landlords, and a software company called RealPage.

The DOJ said they may have engaged in price fixing by sharing competitive rental pricing data. The feds calling them a “cartel” that is likely making the affordable housing crisis worse.

On Friday, the DOJ reached a proposed settlement agreement with Greystar, one of the nation’s, and Charlotte area’s, biggest corporate landlords.

It forces Greystar to accept these conditions, including to stop using the anticompetitive algorithms, sharing sensitive information with competitors, and stop attending RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords.

In a statement, the US Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division said, “Whether in a smoke-filled room or through an algorithm, competitors cannot share competitively sensitive information or align prices.”

Current and former renters like Angelica and Jack agree.

“It’s almost like you can’t win in a way, because it’s always going up,” said Szarka.

A spokesperson for RealPage did not want to comment on the proposed settlement, which a judge must still approve. In a statement, Greystar said it “firmly believes that its use of RealPage’s software complies with all applicable laws, and that it does not admit any wrongdoing.”

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