BALTIMORE, MD — Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has filed a lawsuit against RealPage, Inc. and six of the state’s largest residential landlords, accusing them of colluding to inflate rental prices for thousands of Maryland residents through an illegal price-fixing scheme.
The lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, alleges that the landlords allowed RealPage to set rent prices using its centralized pricing algorithm, resulting in artificially high rents across more than 100,000 apartments statewide. This practice, according to the complaint, violates the Maryland Antitrust Act and has cost renters millions of dollars.
“RealPage and the named landlords worked together to raise the cost of their apartments, making it hard for Maryland renters to put a roof over their heads,” Attorney General Brown said in a statement. “Our Office is committed to holding landlords accountable so Marylanders can afford their rent.”
RealPage, a real estate technology company, provides “Revenue Management” software that uses non-public, sensitive data—such as prospective tenant visits—to generate pricing models aimed at maximizing landlord profits. The lawsuit claims that RealPage not only set these prices but also enforced landlord compliance and encouraged others to adopt the system.
The landlords named in the lawsuit include Morgan Properties Management Company, LLC; Bozzuto Management Company; Greystar Management Services, LLC; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; UDR, Inc.; and Highmark Residential, LLC.
The lawsuit alleges that by sharing sensitive data and surrendering pricing decisions to RealPage, these landlords eliminated competition in the rental market, worsening Maryland’s affordable housing crisis.
The case adds to mounting legal pressure on RealPage, which is already facing similar lawsuits from other government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice.
