Pedestrians stroll previous Cushman & Wakefield Inc. signage in entrance of an workplace constructing for lease within the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, Florida, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016. Photographer: Scott McIntyre/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
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Cushman & Wakefield was amongst six massive landlords sued by the U.S. Division of Justice over alleged anticompetitive practices in housing rental markets on Tuesday, increasing the DOJ’s first case alleging algorithmic collusion.
The DOJ and a coalition of states sued in North Carolina in August, accusing property administration software program firm RealPage of letting landlords collude by sharing their pricing data with the corporate’s software program, which then recommends hire costs.
RealPage has denied the allegations, and is in search of to have the lawsuit dismissed.
The amended lawsuit additionally accuses Cushman, Greystar Actual Property Companions, Blackstone’s LivCor, Camden Property Trust, Cushman’s Pinnacle Property Administration Companies and Willow Bridge Property Co. of utilizing RealPage to unlawfully share personal details about rental pricing.
The landlords additionally shared pricing methods with rivals through calls and consumer teams hosted by RealPage, the DOJ mentioned.
A spokesperson for Cushman mentioned that Pinnacle is solely a property supervisor and doesn’t personal properties or set pricing.
Greystar denied participating in anti-competitive practices and mentioned it might defend in opposition to the claims.
Cortland Administration has agreed to settle the claims, the DOJ mentioned.
“We consider we have been solely in a position to obtain this end result as a result of Cortland has invested years and important inside assets into growing a proprietary income administration software program instrument that doesn’t depend on information from exterior, personal sources,” Cortland mentioned in a press release.
The opposite corporations didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Illinois and Massachusetts joined the lawsuit on Tuesday. The alleged coordination doubtless harmed renters in native housing markets in these states and California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, in response to the lawsuit.
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