4 ms·

Justice Dept. Settles with Greystar to End Participation in Algorithmic Pricing

44 points by impish9208 1y ago

the__alchemist 1y ago
These guys suck. Took over the building I live in a year ago. Rent-raising, and the office staff they hired are idiots. When they took over, they pushed a scammy pay-rent-in-installments scheme when their normal rent system was broken. What they didn't tell anyone: The scheme involved a large fee.
- godzillabrennus 1y ago
  I had a positive experience living in two different Greystar properties from 2013 to 2018, first in Chicago and then in San Francisco. That said, my expectations for property managers/landlords are extremely low. I learned in college how predatory they are when the small landlord I had didn't refund my deposit despite us keeping the place immaculate. Tips: 1.) Read the lease. You probably have to notify them early that you are not renewing, or they can automatically renew you, or charge fees for not telling them. 2.) Never expect your deposit back. Consider putting your last month's rent into escrow until they refund your deposit. The NY Bank of Mellon offered this service at the time. 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. 4.) Things will break, document them in writing, use their "buildinglink" or whatever property management software they use today, but take screenshots and document it for your own records, including in email, so they can't delete it on you and say you didn't tell them. 5.) Every large landlord is a financial services business trying to extract fees out of you for everything they can think of to make a profit. They are the fast food of housing. Low labor costs, low expectations, not good for you in the long term. You should try to find a home to buy at some point to avoid enriching their shareholders.
  - AlexandrB 1y ago
    > 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. Can't tell you how much I hate this in principle. So many people "game" the emotional support animal system that it's impossible to tell if the dog you're seeing at the mall is going to be a trained service animal or someone's 100lb "fur baby" that will try to jump on you when you get close. I can't imagine how people with fur allergies or fear of dogs deal with this stuff.
    - SirFatty 1y ago
      I'd rather deal with a dog over most kids at the mall any day.
      - nkmnz 1y ago
        Plot twist: you were never a kid. Just a puppy that grew into a cranky old mutt.
        SirFatty 1y ago
        Hilarious.
        nkmnz 1y ago
        Thank you, Sir.
  - ecshafer 1y ago
    > 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. This sounds like you have a dog, who is loud, and you are causing a bother to all of your neighbors. But you aren't willing to be responsible about this situation. You probably shouldn't have a dog if you are living in an apartment building in the first place.
    - plemer 1y ago
      > You probably shouldn't have a dog if you are living in an apartment building in the first place. Why?
      - ecshafer 1y ago
        Dogs need space, and locking up a dog for 10 hours in a 1 bedroom apartment while you're at work is borderline cruel.
        plemer 1y ago
        About a quarter of dogs in the US are adopted. Their alternative to apartment life is often death. Large, high-energy dogs definitely need space. Smaller and lower-energy dogs can do well with at home stimulation and consistent exercise. I also don’t know why you’re assuming any of this: 10 hours locked up in 1 bedroom.
    - the__alchemist 1y ago
      We have a lot of dogs in the building. I can't hear the barking, even when had neighbors next door, so no real complaints there! I do have a complaint that the hallway carpets are disgusting, mostly due to being soaked with dog pee and poo. Smell/sight. Management won't replace them. The elevators also have puddles 30% of the time, and smell bad from dog pee.
    - LostJourneyman 1y ago
      Even a dog that doesn't bark makes a lot of noise, and that's just part of living in an apartment. In my last place, my upstairs neighbor had 2 dogs and whenever they wagged their tails when sitting, they would knock on the floor in a way that sounded exactly like someone knocking on my door. They also ran around and crashed into furniture fairly often, but it was hard to tell when it was the dogs or the children. I would counter that if you're not willing to live with a little noise, you shouldn't be living in an apartment building in the first place.
  - WD-42 1y ago
    > 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. So sad to see the high trust society we live in slowly degrade because of people doing stuff like this.
    - esseph 1y ago
      Pretty sure it Has Degraded at this point, past tense.
  - AlotOfReading 1y ago
    My experience couldn't have been more different. They started insisting I didn't have renter's insurance midway through the second year. I provided them evidence every month for the remaining 7 months of the lease, which they would "lose" by the next month. Didn't matter how well I recorded providing them the information. When I moved out, they exercised their unannounced walkthrough clause two weeks before the actual date, when I still had property in the unit. These photos were used as evidence that I had left things behind to keep my deposit, despite being provided photos of said items at my new place.
    - the__alchemist 1y ago
      They pulled the same renters insurance thing with me too! I submitted 10 different variants to their automated system before it was accepted. Part of it was to changing the company name they needed on it mid way through.
- _verandaguy 1y ago
  > pay-rent-in-installments How does this differ from normal rent?
  - lesuorac 1y ago
    Think Affirm/Klarna but different company.
    - runako 1y ago
      Not the OP, but I could use more explanation. Isn't Affirm typically structured as payments over X period of time for something that is normally a one-time purchase? Why would you do that for rent, which is already spread out over a period of time? Or are they expecting you to pay the annual rent in a lump sum up front otherwise?
      - ixwt 1y ago
        Recently my apartment management company added an option to pay your rent in two payments over the month, rather than all at once at the beginning of the month. I didn't look into it, but there's always a catch with these "pay in installments" systems. Nothing in this world is free.
        _verandaguy 1y ago
        The usual catch is that for now, these companies are offering it at zero extra charge because they're building up sellable corpora of data. Whether and when this business model will change is any outsider's guess.
        lesuorac 1y ago
        It's not at zero extra charge. Most of the Buy-Now-Pay-Later companies charge higher transaction fees to the merchants than say MasterCard [1]. Now, the business of accepting debt from people that uh can't repay that debt is probably going to have to change. [1]: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/klarna-for-business/ https://www.merchantmaverick.com/klarna-for-business/
- prasadjoglekar 1y ago
  If you have documented proof, please do what the press release says, and ask that excess rents be refunded. Someone has to put comments, or else it will go through without a hitch. As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any interested person should submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days following the publication to Danielle Hauck, Acting Chief, Technology and Digital Platforms Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 7050, Washington, DC 20530. At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
MarkSweep 1y ago
I’m I reading this right that the settlement is just “don’t do that again”? Is it typical in antitrust settlements to not have sort of monetary punishment? Like if this were a class action settlement, they would have to pay back some amount of money to renters.
- altairprime 1y ago
  There’s also “required to cooperate against Realpage”, which is the true target of all this. Presumably this administration isn’t interested in clawing back illicitly earned gains from corporations.
  - arthurcolle 1y ago
    No, the admin is much more interested in straight up shaking down colleges and perceived enemies
  - vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
    They love scammers as long as they support Trump. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Milton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Milton or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Fiore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Fiore. Quite a few others.
- gruez 1y ago
  >I’m I reading this right that the settlement is just “don’t do that again”? Is it typical in antitrust settlements to not have sort of monetary punishment? The better question is how strong of a case the government had. Your question implies Greystar was indisputably guilty and the government's case would be a slam dunk, but that's not readily apparent, given the novel concept of "algorithmic price fixing". >Like if this were a class action settlement, they would have to pay back some amount of money to renters. This settlement doesn't preclude class action lawsuits on the part of tenants.
  - dataflow 1y ago
    My understanding is landlords were retaliated against for frequently deviating from the prices set by such software. Is that wrong for this particular company? Because if it's not, then I don't see how that's not price fixing.
stego-tech 1y ago
Good. Algorithmic pricing is awful and should be completely banned, especially for necessities like shelter. Despite all the boosters claiming it’ll reduce costs by charging what everyone can afford, we have ample evidence that it just inflates costs for everyone because it maximizes what they can pay.
- supportengineer 1y ago
  But aren’t they doing that anyway? There are MBAs and consultants who specialize in setting prices. Why does it matter if they use a person or an algorithm or a random number generator?
  - pyrale 1y ago
    The answer is "cartel". They weren't condemned for the algorithmic pricing part, they were condemned because they "participated" (subtext: along with other landlords). The "algorithmic" part is just cartel laundering, they probably hoped that by not communicating directly with competitors, but instead having participants giving their data to "the algorithm" which would have consolidated the data and given each participant optimal pricing, they could evade charges. I agree the title would have been much better if that point was clearer.
    - superxpro12 1y ago
      Isn't this just collusion with more steps?
      - lightbritefight 1y ago
        Literally yes. They knowingly offloaded their collusion to a 3rd party and an "algorithm" in order to illegally profit from a cartel. It's happening in more than just housing too. This also happens in food stuffs like potatoes.
  - radixdiaboli 1y ago
    It's not about the technology per se. There's a difference between setting a price and colluding to create the price. If the major players in an industry all happened to share all of their data with the same consultant, and the consultant told them all what to set the price to, I imagine you'd have the same legal issue.
tantalor 1y ago
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNo8Ve-Ej6U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNo8Ve-Ej6U Deferred Prosecution Agreements: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). 4 August 2025 Basically, these agreements and settlements let companies get away with crimes without incurring any meaningful penalties, and in many cases they are allowed to continue with their existing practices, or regulate themselves.
supportengineer 1y ago
I don’t understand which part of this is illegal. They are landlords and so they can set the rent. Why does it matter if they use an algorithm or a random number generator? If the price is too high people simply won’t pay it. I don’t think it’s really possible to charge more than the market will bear. Because they simply won’t pay it then.
- ausbah 1y ago
  on paper this reduces no competition between landlords? this is collusion which sort of breaks the whole supply and demand part of the housing market also housing is a pretty necessity so the prices can keep going up and people will continue to buy
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- istjohn 1y ago
  RealPage's algorithms facilitate collusion among landlords to set prices. Whether or not you agree, price-fixing is illegal [0]. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing
- pyrale 1y ago
  > They are landlords and so they can set the rent. They are supposed to compete with other landlords. If they enter an agreement to share prices and to not undercut each other, market mechanics no longer work.
ordinaryradical 1y ago
Why does the company get to keep on existing? Why are its owners not financially annihilated (as in, all their assets seized, etc.)? It seems to me that if the end result of exploiting a million families/individuals for cartel rents is you get told, “Don’t do it again,” but no one who did it suffers any consequences… this is going to keep happening. The participants in this scheme should be facing jail time and a financial reset. Oppression of the vulnerable should blow up underneath any who try it. Otherwise this country is going to explode.
- guywithahat 1y ago
  Why is this an issue? They had a legitimate technical challenge (pricing 950k unique apartments in varying markets), and so they brought in an outside company. This was so successful everyone stated using them. The justice department then asked greystar, among others, if they could stop using RealPage, and they agreed. There wasn't a conviction as this is a proposed settlement, and there's no reason to break the company up because it looks like everyone is getting what they wanted.
  - superxpro12 1y ago
    This strikes me as an example of a company looking for any way to exploit a monopoly.
  - more_corn 1y ago
    Why would they be punished for engaging in monopolistic price fixing that ruined the lives of many of our most vulnerable and served to significantly increase homelessness? Gosh, I dunno.
    - guywithahat 1y ago
      At the end of the day they can only charge market prices, and the market prices are much more related to the city government than the agency. Greystar has tons of affordable units in [Houston](https://www.houstonhouseapts.com/floor-plans/#/ https://www.houstonhouseapts.com/floor-plans/#/), where there is no city zoning and construction is encouraged
jmyeet 1y ago
Welcome to gangster capitalism [1], which only doesn't differ from ordinary capitalism all that much. All capitalism does is build enclosures and engage in rent-seeking. When you see private equity taking over every aspect of your life down to local medical practices, vets and trailer parks, all they're doing is leveraging a necessity into higher prices by giving you absolutely no other choice. Going forward you will see absolutely no criminal consequences for the company or the indiivudals responsible either because we're now openly selling pardons [2] and we have a Supreme Court that made the president a monarch with immunity from criminal prosecution. I don't know what America becomes after this but it has changed and is fundamnetally changing and it's never going back. We're in a period like the start of the nuclear age, the Cold War and the Red Scare. Or post-9/11. There are many people here and elsewhere who distinctly remember how different life was before 9/11. And there is zero political opposition to any of it. The Democratic Party is absolutely complicit in everything that's happening. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangster_Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangster_Capitalism [2]: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-pardons-drive-big-burgeoning-business-lobbyists-rcna209801 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-pardons-...

44 points by impish9208 1y ago

These guys suck. Took over the building I live in a year ago. Rent-raising, and the office staff they hired are idiots. When they took over, they pushed a scammy pay-rent-in-installments scheme when their normal rent system was broken. What they didn't tell anyone: The scheme involved a large fee.

godzillabrennus 1y ago
I had a positive experience living in two different Greystar properties from 2013 to 2018, first in Chicago and then in San Francisco. That said, my expectations for property managers/landlords are extremely low. I learned in college how predatory they are when the small landlord I had didn't refund my deposit despite us keeping the place immaculate. Tips: 1.) Read the lease. You probably have to notify them early that you are not renewing, or they can automatically renew you, or charge fees for not telling them. 2.) Never expect your deposit back. Consider putting your last month's rent into escrow until they refund your deposit. The NY Bank of Mellon offered this service at the time. 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. 4.) Things will break, document them in writing, use their "buildinglink" or whatever property management software they use today, but take screenshots and document it for your own records, including in email, so they can't delete it on you and say you didn't tell them. 5.) Every large landlord is a financial services business trying to extract fees out of you for everything they can think of to make a profit. They are the fast food of housing. Low labor costs, low expectations, not good for you in the long term. You should try to find a home to buy at some point to avoid enriching their shareholders.
- AlexandrB 1y ago
  > 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. Can't tell you how much I hate this in principle. So many people "game" the emotional support animal system that it's impossible to tell if the dog you're seeing at the mall is going to be a trained service animal or someone's 100lb "fur baby" that will try to jump on you when you get close. I can't imagine how people with fur allergies or fear of dogs deal with this stuff.
  - SirFatty 1y ago
    I'd rather deal with a dog over most kids at the mall any day.
    - nkmnz 1y ago
      Plot twist: you were never a kid. Just a puppy that grew into a cranky old mutt.
      - SirFatty 1y ago
        Hilarious.
        nkmnz 1y ago
        Thank you, Sir.
- ecshafer 1y ago
  > 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. This sounds like you have a dog, who is loud, and you are causing a bother to all of your neighbors. But you aren't willing to be responsible about this situation. You probably shouldn't have a dog if you are living in an apartment building in the first place.
  - plemer 1y ago
    > You probably shouldn't have a dog if you are living in an apartment building in the first place. Why?
    - ecshafer 1y ago
      Dogs need space, and locking up a dog for 10 hours in a 1 bedroom apartment while you're at work is borderline cruel.
      - plemer 1y ago
        About a quarter of dogs in the US are adopted. Their alternative to apartment life is often death. Large, high-energy dogs definitely need space. Smaller and lower-energy dogs can do well with at home stimulation and consistent exercise. I also don’t know why you’re assuming any of this: 10 hours locked up in 1 bedroom.
  - the__alchemist 1y ago
    We have a lot of dogs in the building. I can't hear the barking, even when had neighbors next door, so no real complaints there! I do have a complaint that the hallway carpets are disgusting, mostly due to being soaked with dog pee and poo. Smell/sight. Management won't replace them. The elevators also have puddles 30% of the time, and smell bad from dog pee.
  - LostJourneyman 1y ago
    Even a dog that doesn't bark makes a lot of noise, and that's just part of living in an apartment. In my last place, my upstairs neighbor had 2 dogs and whenever they wagged their tails when sitting, they would knock on the floor in a way that sounded exactly like someone knocking on my door. They also ran around and crashed into furniture fairly often, but it was hard to tell when it was the dogs or the children. I would counter that if you're not willing to live with a little noise, you shouldn't be living in an apartment building in the first place.
- WD-42 1y ago
  > 3.) Expect neighbors to complain if you have a dog, even if they are not loud or rambunctious, so see if you qualify to get an emotional support animal prescription to negate most legal issues. So sad to see the high trust society we live in slowly degrade because of people doing stuff like this.
  - esseph 1y ago
    Pretty sure it Has Degraded at this point, past tense.
- AlotOfReading 1y ago
  My experience couldn't have been more different. They started insisting I didn't have renter's insurance midway through the second year. I provided them evidence every month for the remaining 7 months of the lease, which they would "lose" by the next month. Didn't matter how well I recorded providing them the information. When I moved out, they exercised their unannounced walkthrough clause two weeks before the actual date, when I still had property in the unit. These photos were used as evidence that I had left things behind to keep my deposit, despite being provided photos of said items at my new place.
  - the__alchemist 1y ago
    They pulled the same renters insurance thing with me too! I submitted 10 different variants to their automated system before it was accepted. Part of it was to changing the company name they needed on it mid way through.
_verandaguy 1y ago
> pay-rent-in-installments How does this differ from normal rent?
- lesuorac 1y ago
  Think Affirm/Klarna but different company.
  - runako 1y ago
    Not the OP, but I could use more explanation. Isn't Affirm typically structured as payments over X period of time for something that is normally a one-time purchase? Why would you do that for rent, which is already spread out over a period of time? Or are they expecting you to pay the annual rent in a lump sum up front otherwise?
    - ixwt 1y ago
      Recently my apartment management company added an option to pay your rent in two payments over the month, rather than all at once at the beginning of the month. I didn't look into it, but there's always a catch with these "pay in installments" systems. Nothing in this world is free.
      - _verandaguy 1y ago
        The usual catch is that for now, these companies are offering it at zero extra charge because they're building up sellable corpora of data. Whether and when this business model will change is any outsider's guess.
        lesuorac 1y ago
        It's not at zero extra charge. Most of the Buy-Now-Pay-Later companies charge higher transaction fees to the merchants than say MasterCard [1]. Now, the business of accepting debt from people that uh can't repay that debt is probably going to have to change. [1]: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/klarna-for-business/ https://www.merchantmaverick.com/klarna-for-business/
prasadjoglekar 1y ago
If you have documented proof, please do what the press release says, and ask that excess rents be refunded. Someone has to put comments, or else it will go through without a hitch. As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any interested person should submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days following the publication to Danielle Hauck, Acting Chief, Technology and Digital Platforms Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 7050, Washington, DC 20530. At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.

MarkSweep 1y ago

I’m I reading this right that the settlement is just “don’t do that again”? Is it typical in antitrust settlements to not have sort of monetary punishment? Like if this were a class action settlement, they would have to pay back some amount of money to renters.

altairprime 1y ago
There’s also “required to cooperate against Realpage”, which is the true target of all this. Presumably this administration isn’t interested in clawing back illicitly earned gains from corporations.
- arthurcolle 1y ago
  No, the admin is much more interested in straight up shaking down colleges and perceived enemies
- vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
  They love scammers as long as they support Trump. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Milton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Milton or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Fiore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Fiore. Quite a few others.
gruez 1y ago
>I’m I reading this right that the settlement is just “don’t do that again”? Is it typical in antitrust settlements to not have sort of monetary punishment? The better question is how strong of a case the government had. Your question implies Greystar was indisputably guilty and the government's case would be a slam dunk, but that's not readily apparent, given the novel concept of "algorithmic price fixing". >Like if this were a class action settlement, they would have to pay back some amount of money to renters. This settlement doesn't preclude class action lawsuits on the part of tenants.
- dataflow 1y ago
  My understanding is landlords were retaliated against for frequently deviating from the prices set by such software. Is that wrong for this particular company? Because if it's not, then I don't see how that's not price fixing.

stego-tech 1y ago

Good. Algorithmic pricing is awful and should be completely banned, especially for necessities like shelter. Despite all the boosters claiming it’ll reduce costs by charging what everyone can afford, we have ample evidence that it just inflates costs for everyone because it maximizes what they can pay.

supportengineer 1y ago
But aren’t they doing that anyway? There are MBAs and consultants who specialize in setting prices. Why does it matter if they use a person or an algorithm or a random number generator?
- pyrale 1y ago
  The answer is "cartel". They weren't condemned for the algorithmic pricing part, they were condemned because they "participated" (subtext: along with other landlords). The "algorithmic" part is just cartel laundering, they probably hoped that by not communicating directly with competitors, but instead having participants giving their data to "the algorithm" which would have consolidated the data and given each participant optimal pricing, they could evade charges. I agree the title would have been much better if that point was clearer.
  - superxpro12 1y ago
    Isn't this just collusion with more steps?
    - lightbritefight 1y ago
      Literally yes. They knowingly offloaded their collusion to a 3rd party and an "algorithm" in order to illegally profit from a cartel. It's happening in more than just housing too. This also happens in food stuffs like potatoes.
- radixdiaboli 1y ago
  It's not about the technology per se. There's a difference between setting a price and colluding to create the price. If the major players in an industry all happened to share all of their data with the same consultant, and the consultant told them all what to set the price to, I imagine you'd have the same legal issue.

tantalor 1y ago

Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNo8Ve-Ej6U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNo8Ve-Ej6U Deferred Prosecution Agreements: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). 4 August 2025 Basically, these agreements and settlements let companies get away with crimes without incurring any meaningful penalties, and in many cases they are allowed to continue with their existing practices, or regulate themselves.

supportengineer 1y ago

I don’t understand which part of this is illegal. They are landlords and so they can set the rent. Why does it matter if they use an algorithm or a random number generator? If the price is too high people simply won’t pay it. I don’t think it’s really possible to charge more than the market will bear. Because they simply won’t pay it then.

ausbah 1y ago
on paper this reduces no competition between landlords? this is collusion which sort of breaks the whole supply and demand part of the housing market also housing is a pretty necessity so the prices can keep going up and people will continue to buy
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
istjohn 1y ago
RealPage's algorithms facilitate collusion among landlords to set prices. Whether or not you agree, price-fixing is illegal [0]. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing
pyrale 1y ago
> They are landlords and so they can set the rent. They are supposed to compete with other landlords. If they enter an agreement to share prices and to not undercut each other, market mechanics no longer work.

ordinaryradical 1y ago

Why does the company get to keep on existing? Why are its owners not financially annihilated (as in, all their assets seized, etc.)? It seems to me that if the end result of exploiting a million families/individuals for cartel rents is you get told, “Don’t do it again,” but no one who did it suffers any consequences… this is going to keep happening. The participants in this scheme should be facing jail time and a financial reset. Oppression of the vulnerable should blow up underneath any who try it. Otherwise this country is going to explode.

guywithahat 1y ago
Why is this an issue? They had a legitimate technical challenge (pricing 950k unique apartments in varying markets), and so they brought in an outside company. This was so successful everyone stated using them. The justice department then asked greystar, among others, if they could stop using RealPage, and they agreed. There wasn't a conviction as this is a proposed settlement, and there's no reason to break the company up because it looks like everyone is getting what they wanted.
- superxpro12 1y ago
  This strikes me as an example of a company looking for any way to exploit a monopoly.
- more_corn 1y ago
  Why would they be punished for engaging in monopolistic price fixing that ruined the lives of many of our most vulnerable and served to significantly increase homelessness? Gosh, I dunno.
  - guywithahat 1y ago
    At the end of the day they can only charge market prices, and the market prices are much more related to the city government than the agency. Greystar has tons of affordable units in [Houston](https://www.houstonhouseapts.com/floor-plans/#/ https://www.houstonhouseapts.com/floor-plans/#/), where there is no city zoning and construction is encouraged

jmyeet 1y ago

Welcome to gangster capitalism [1], which only doesn't differ from ordinary capitalism all that much. All capitalism does is build enclosures and engage in rent-seeking. When you see private equity taking over every aspect of your life down to local medical practices, vets and trailer parks, all they're doing is leveraging a necessity into higher prices by giving you absolutely no other choice. Going forward you will see absolutely no criminal consequences for the company or the indiivudals responsible either because we're now openly selling pardons [2] and we have a Supreme Court that made the president a monarch with immunity from criminal prosecution. I don't know what America becomes after this but it has changed and is fundamnetally changing and it's never going back. We're in a period like the start of the nuclear age, the Cold War and the Red Scare. Or post-9/11. There are many people here and elsewhere who distinctly remember how different life was before 9/11. And there is zero political opposition to any of it. The Democratic Party is absolutely complicit in everything that's happening. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangster_Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangster_Capitalism [2]: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-pardons-drive-big-burgeoning-business-lobbyists-rcna209801 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-pardons-...