I’m not sure if Trump intends to keep the U.S. Department of Justice as part of our government, but after going through rigorous investigations as to his practices in and out of office he certainly wants to punish many affiliated with the DOJ. Two weeks ago, Special Counsel Jack Smith who investigated Trump said that basically if Trump hadn’t been elected in 2024 he would have been found guilty of trying to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The DOJ enforces federal laws, works to prevent crime and terrorism, promotes national security, and protects consumers by ensuring healthy business competition. And you should know the latest bombshell to come out of the DOJ (in cooperation with several state co-plaintiffs-attorney’s general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington) is a case against several of the largest corporate landlords in the country, accusing them of “participating in algorithmic pricing schemes that harmed renters”.

The complaint alleges the landlords — Greystar Real Estate Partners; Blackstone’s LivCor; Camden Property Trust; Cushman & Wakefield Inc and Pinnacle Property Management Services; Willow Bridge Property Company; RealPage; Apartment Landlords;  and Cortland Management — participated in an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters. Together, these landlords operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia. At the same time, the Justice Department filed a proposed consent decree with landlord Cortland that requires it to cooperate with the government, stop using its competitors’ sensitive data to set rents and stop using the same algorithm as its competitors without a corporate monitor.

The complaint alleges major corporate landlords actively participated in a scheme to set their rents HIGH using each other’s competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms, including working with competitors about rents, occupancy and other sensitive topics and future pricing plans that included planned price increases through “call arounds” which they nicknamed “market surveys”.  For instance, landlords discussed via user groups how to modify the software’s pricing methodology, as well as their own pricing strategies. In one example, executives from two companies worked with another as to their plans for renewal increases, concessions and acceptance rates of rent recommendations

Sharing information with competitors to increase pricing is a big no-no and can be considered ‘price fixing’. You simply can’t use competitors’ data to run your price models.  Soliciting, disclosing or using any competitively sensitive information with any other property manager as part of setting rental prices or generating rental pricing recommendations only hurts renters and helps landlords/owners/investors. As an example, Cortland manages over 80,000 rental units in 13 states. Imagine the impact just that one company has on renters and rent rates! Many of these firms under investigation operate apartment buildings in Utah, from Salt Lake City, Ogden-Clearfield, Provo-Orem and St. George to Park City at the Canyons Village.