Thread by @owenslindsay1

🧵Ok I'm someone who has followed the @RealPage price fixing conspiracy in the rental market closely, but this weekend I read the full @TheJusticeDept complaint and my jaw hit the floor. This was flagrant, far reaching and deliberate. Let's dig in. 1/7 justice.gov/opa/pr/justice…

First, this wasn't just a computer program spitting out high prices (though it def does that too!), the human scale is tremendous and includes a) in person "user groups" between competitors (giant corporate landlords) to swap info and hear lectures on how to "push up pricing" 2/7

b) "pricing advisors" who ensure landlords are taking the high prices the computer spits out and escalates cases where landlords aren't obeying the machine (i.e., charging too little) and then calls them into the principal's office to give them a "refresher on goals." 3/7

c) a team of staff that make tens of thousands of calls to landlords every single month to collect nonpublic competitively sensitive information including occupancy rates, prices, floor plan, info on concessions, lease terms, and more (i.e., the data the machine relies on) 4/7

It takes a lot of elbow grease to execute a price fixing conspiracy at this scale and thousands surely played a role, but the algorithm is also more sinister than I expected. The software is designed w/ "auto accept" features to ensure landlords adopt pricing recommendations. 5/7

It also has a "hard floor" to ensure prices don't drop too low, "sold-out mode" that "recommends the maximum rent charged by a property’s competitors, even if the floor plan’s previous price was far lower" & "revenue protection mode" to ensure prices don't dip in downturns. 6/7

There is a lot more in this 100 page complaint but three things are clear. 7/7

1) @RealPage must be shut down.
2) @RealPage has been inflating rents by stifling competition throughout the country.
3) If @RealPage is not stopped they will be in more markets/cities very soon.