Another real estate software company sued over apartment price-fixing claims — The lawsuit follows claims of similar tactics by Richardson software company RealPage::Software company Yardi Systems Inc. and 18 property management companies were named in an antitrust class-action lawsuit Friday accusing the companies of a…

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    Through the RENTmaximizer, the rental companies outsourced their pricing decisions to Yardi and artificially eliminated any competition between them, the suit alleged.

    Instead of courting renters based on market conditions, attorneys say property management companies used Yardi’s algorithmic tool to automate the pricing process and implement higher prices collectively across a group of landlords.

    “Our antitrust legal team has uncovered what we believe to be a clear gaming of the system through controlled, lockstep algorithmic increases to fix the cost of rent — one that has affected millions of renters,” said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, in a statement.

    Dallas-based apartment manager, owner and developer Tonti Properties is one of the 18 landlords named in the suit.

    ProPublica published an investigation last October on landlords’ use of RealPage’s proprietary YieldStar algorithm to push the highest possible rent prices on tenants for apartments across the U.S.

    More than 20 lawsuits against RealPage were consolidated in Nashville federal court in April, Reuters reported.


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