The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, along with eight other states, filed a proposed $7 million settlement with one of the nation’s largest apartment managers on Wednesday.
The AG’s office announced a planned settlement with Greystar Management Services, LLC, which manages 31 properties in the Twin Cities metro area including Irvine Exchange and Waterford Bay Apartments in St. Paul and The Westlyn Apartments in West St. Paul.
The settlement comes from an ongoing multi-state civil antitrust lawsuit filed in January against RealPage, Inc. and several of the nation’s largest residential property managers, including Greystar. The lawsuit alleges RealPage, a Texas-based property management software company owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, has artificially hampered competition in apartment pricing. Landlords and rental companies use RealPage to price apartments. The suit alleges RealPage monopolizes the market for commercial rental revenue management software.
The lawsuit also alleges Greystar and other landlords and rental companies worked together to set the parameters for RealPage’s software. They also discussed competitively sensitive topics such as pricing strategies and rents, the suit alleges.
In the proposed settlement, Greystar will pay $7 million to Minnesota and the other states involved in the litigation: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee. Minnesota is set to receive roughly $483,000 of the $7 million, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
In addition to payout, the settlement requires Greystar to limit its use of rent setting algorithms and refrain from sharing competitively sensitive information with competitors.
The settlement would also prevent Greystar from participating in RealPage events and compels Greystar to cooperate with Minnesota and other plaintiffs in their ongoing litigation against RealPage.
In a news release, Attorney General Keith Ellison said corporate greed like this is fueling inflation.
“I’m proud to join this bipartisan coalition and the (Department of Justice) in once again holding a company accountable that is violating antitrust law and illegally making it harder for people to afford their lives,” Ellison wrote.
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