A federal judge has given final approval to settlements totaling $359.9 million between renters and dozens of apartment owners and managers accused of using RealPage software to push rents up, closing a large piece of litigation that has centered on the Richardson-based company since 2022.
Judge Waverly Crenshaw of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee approved the settlements Oct. 15, finding them fair and adequate to the class, Multifamily Dive reported Tuesday. The order also dismisses the claims against the settling defendants with prejudice.
The suits, filed in late 2022 and early 2023 and combined in April 2023, alleged that landlords used RealPage's revenue management tools to share data and set rents above what an open market would bear. The settling defendants deny wrongdoing, and the court did not decide who was right, according to the official settlement website.
Who settled
The website lists more than 40 settling defendants, including Greystar, Camden Property Trust, Equity Residential, Lincoln Property Co., Crow Holdings and Trammell Crow Residential. RealPage is not on that list. The court's order says the dismissal does not affect claims against defendants that did not settle, according to Multifamily Dive.
Besides paying, the settling landlords agreed to stop giving RealPage their nonpublic data for use in its pricing recommendations and to stop using its software in ways that draw on competitors' nonpublic data, the outlet reported.
Attorneys general from the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington objected that the agreements could interfere with their own lawsuits. Crenshaw rejected that argument in an Oct. 9 filing, writing that the releases do not harm the states' sovereign interests, Multifamily Dive reported.