`FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
`
`
`
`UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
`U.S. Department of Justice
`950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
`Washington, DC 20530
`
`STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
`114 W. Edenton Street
`Raleigh, NC 27603
`
`STATE OF CALIFORNIA
`300 South Spring Street, Suite 1702
`Los Angeles, CA 90013
`
`STATE OF COLORADO
`1300 Broadway, 7th Floor
`Denver, CO 80203
`
`STATE OF CONNECTICUT
`165 Capitol Avenue
`Hartford, CT 06106
`
`STATE OF MINNESOTA
`445 Minnesota Street
`St. Paul, MN 55101
`
`STATE OF OREGON
`100 SW Market St
`Portland, OR 97201
`
`STATE OF TENNESSEE
`P.O. Box 20207
`Nashville, TN 37202
`
`
`
`
`Case No. 1:24-cv-00710
`
`and
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 1 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`STATE OF WASHINGTON
`800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
`Seattle, WA 98104-3188,
`
`
`
`v.
`
`Plaintiffs,
`
`REALPAGE, INC.
`2201 Lakeside Blvd.
`Richardson, TX 75082,
`
`
`
`Defendant.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`COMPLAINT
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 2 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`I.
`II.
`
`B.
`
`C.
`
`D.
`
`Table of Contents
`Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1
`RealPage’s Revenue Management Software Is Fueled by Nonpublic, Competitively
`Sensitive Information Shared By Landlords ............................................................ 6
`Landlords Agree to Share Nonpublic, Competitively Sensitive
`A.
`Transactional Data with RealPage for Use in Generating Competitors’
`Pricing Recommendations ............................................................................. 7
`AIRM and YieldStar Users Agree with RealPage to Use the Software
`to Align Pricing ........................................................................................... 11
`RealPage’s Transactional Data Is Fundamentally Different from Other
`Data Available to Landlords ....................................................................... 13
`RealPage Revenue Management Software Uses Nonpublic,
`Competitively Sensitive Data to Recommend Prices .................................. 15
`AIRM and YieldStar Leverage Competitively Sensitive Data to
`1.
`Generate Price Recommendations ................................................... 15
`AIRM model training relies on competitively sensitive
`a)
`data to generate learned parameters. ..................................... 16
`AIRM and YieldStar incorporate competitors’ nonpublic
`data to generate floor plan price recommendations. ............. 16
`AIRM and YieldStar use competitors’ nonpublic data—
`including data on future occupancy—to determine unit-
`level prices. ........................................................................... 20
`LRO Relies Primarily on Landlords to Input Data on Competitors
` .......................................................................................................... 22
`RealPage Uses Multiple Mechanisms to Increase Compliance with
`Price Recommendations .............................................................................. 23
`AIRM and YieldStar Make it Easy to Accept Recommendations
`1.
`and More Difficult and Time-Consuming to Decline ...................... 23
`RealPage Pushes Clients to Adopt Auto-Accept Settings That
`Automatically Approve Recommendations ..................................... 25
`RealPage Pricing Advisors Provide a “Check and Balance” on
`Property Managers to Increase Acceptance of Recommendations .. 26
`Pricing Recommendations Heavily
`Influence Landlords’
`Behavior ........................................................................................... 27
`III. Coordination Among Competing Landlords Is a Feature of this Industry ............. 28
`
`b)
`
`c)
`
`E.
`
`2.
`
`2.
`
`3.
`
`4.
`
`i
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 3 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`2.
`
`3.
`
`A.
`B.
`
`C.
`
`B.
`
`C.
`
`Rental Housing is a Necessity for Millions of Americans .......................... 29
`The Multifamily Property Industry is Rife with Cooperation Among
`Ostensible Competitors ............................................................................... 29
`At the Local Level, the Multifamily Property Industry Comprises
`1.
`a Small Number of Large Landlords Managing Buildings with
`Different Owners .............................................................................. 30
`Landlords Regularly Discuss Competitively Sensitive Topics
`with Their Competitors and Swap Information ............................... 31
`At RealPage User Group Meetings, Landlords Discuss
`Competitively Sensitive Topics ....................................................... 35
`RealPage Uses Nonpublic Information to Allow Landlords to More
`Easily Compare Units on an Apples-to-Apples Basis ................................. 40
`IV. RealPage Harms the Competitive Process and Renters By Entering Into Unlawful
`Agreements With Landlords to Share and Exploit Competitively Sensitive
`Data ......................................................................................................................... 40
`AIRM and YieldStar Have the Purpose and Effect of Distorting the
`A.
`Competitive Pricing of Apartments ............................................................. 41
`AIRM and YieldStar Impose Multiple Guardrails Intended to
`Artificially Keep Prices High or Minimize Price Decreases ...................... 49
`AIRM and YieldStar Harm the Competitive Process by Discouraging
`the Use of Discounts and Price Negotiations .............................................. 53
`AIRM and YieldStar Increase and Maintain Landlords’ Pricing Power
`by Using Competitors’ Data to Manage Lease Expirations ........................ 54
`No Procompetitive Benefit Justifies, Much Less Outweighs,
`RealPage’s Use of Competitively Sensitive Data to Align Competing
`Landlords ..................................................................................................... 56
`RealPage Uses Landlords’ Competitively Sensitive Data To Maintain Its Monopoly
`And Exclude Commercial Revenue Management Software Competitors ............. 56
`Landlords Are Drawn to RealPage Because of Access to Nonpublic
`A.
`Transactional Data That Is Used to Increase Landlords’ Revenue ............. 57
`RealPage’s Collection and Use of Competitively Sensitive Data
`Excludes Competition in Commercial Revenue Management Software .... 59
`VI. Relevant Markets .................................................................................................... 62
`A.
`Conventional Multifamily Rental Housing Markets ................................... 62
`1.
`Product Markets ............................................................................... 62
`
`D.
`
`E.
`
`B.
`
`V.
`
`ii
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 4 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`a)
`
`b)
`
`c)
`
`b)
`
`2.
`
`B.
`
`Conventional Multifamily Rentals Are Distinct From
`Other Types of Multifamily Housing .................................... 62
`Single-Family Housing Is Not A Reasonable Substitute to
`Multifamily Rentals .............................................................. 64
`Conventional Multifamily Rental Units With Different
`Bedroom Counts Are Relevant Product Markets .................. 66
`Geographic Markets ......................................................................... 69
`RealPage-Defined Submarkets Identify Relevant
`a)
`Geographic Markets .............................................................. 71
`Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) Are Relevant
`Geographic Markets .............................................................. 73
`Commercial Revenue Management Software Market ................................ 76
`1.
`Product Market ................................................................................. 77
`2.
`Geographic Market ........................................................................... 78
`Jurisdiction, Venue, and Commerce ....................................................................... 79
`VII.
`VIII. Violations Alleged .................................................................................................. 81
`IX. Request for Relief ................................................................................................... 87
`Appendix A: Submarkets .................................................................................................. 98
`Appendix B: Submarkets By Bedroom Count ................................................................ 102
`
`iii
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 5 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`I.
`
`INTRODUCTION
`
`1.
`
`Renters are entitled to the benefits of vigorous competition among
`
`landlords. In prosperous times, that competition should limit rent hikes; in harder times,
`
`competition should bring down rent, making housing more affordable. RealPage has built
`
`a business out of frustrating the natural forces of competition. In its own words, “a rising
`
`tide raises all ships.” This is more than a marketing mantra. RealPage sells software to
`
`landlords that collects nonpublic information from competing landlords and uses that
`
`combined information to make pricing recommendations. In its own words, RealPage
`
`“helps curb [landlords’] instincts to respond to down-market conditions by either
`
`dramatically lowering price or by holding price when they are losing velocity and/or
`
`occupancy. . . . Our tool [] ensures that [landlords] are driving every possible
`
`opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected
`
`conditions” (emphases added).
`
`2.
`
`In fact, as RealPage’s Vice President of Revenue Management Advisory
`
`Services described, “there is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially
`
`trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry
`
`down” (emphasis added). As he put it, if enough landlords used RealPage’s software,
`
`they would “likely move in unison versus against each other” (emphasis added). To
`
`RealPage, the “greater good” is served by ensuring that otherwise competing landlords
`
`rob Americans of the fruits of competition—lower rental prices, better leasing terms,
`
`1
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 6 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`more concessions. At the same time, the landlords enjoy the benefits of coordinated
`
`pricing among competitors.
`
`3.
`
`RealPage replaces competition with coordination. It substitutes unity for
`
`rivalry. It subverts competition and the competitive process. It does so openly and
`
`directly—and American renters are left paying the price.
`
`*****
`Americans spend more money on housing than any other expense. On
`
`4.
`
`average, American households allocate more than one-third of their monthly income to
`
`housing. Some purchase a home, while others choose to, or must, rent. A family’s
`
`selection of an apartment reflects a complex set of values and criteria including comfort,
`
`safety, access to schools, convenience, and critically, affordability. To ensure they secure
`
`the greatest value for their needs, renters rely on robust and fierce competition between
`
`landlords.
`
`5.
`
`RealPage distorts that competition. Across America, RealPage sells
`
`landlords commercial revenue management software. RealPage develops, markets, and
`
`sells this software to enable landlords to sidestep vigorous competition to win renters’
`
`business. Landlords, who would otherwise be competing with each other, submit on a
`
`daily basis their competitively sensitive information to RealPage. This nonpublic,
`
`material, and granular rental data includes, among other information, a landlord’s rental
`
`prices from executed leases, lease terms, and future occupancy. RealPage collects a broad
`
`swath of such data from competing landlords, combines it, and feeds it to an algorithm.
`
`2
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 7 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`6.
`
`Based on this process and algorithm, RealPage provides daily, near real-
`
`time pricing “recommendations” back to competing landlords. These recommendations
`
`are based on the sensitive information of their rivals. But these are more than just
`
`“recommendations.” Because, in its own words, a “rising tide raises all ships,” RealPage
`
`monitors compliance by landlords to its recommendations. RealPage also reviews and
`
`weighs in on landlords’ other policies, including trying to—and often succeeding in—
`
`ending renter-friendly concessions (like a free month’s rent or waived fees) to attract or
`
`retain renters. A significant number of landlords then effectively agree to outsource their
`
`pricing function to RealPage with auto acceptance or other settings such that RealPage as
`
`a middleman, and not the free market, determines the price that a renter will pay.
`
`Competing landlords choose to share their information with RealPage to “eliminate the
`
`guessing game” about what their competitors are doing and ultimately take instructions
`
`from RealPage on how to make business decisions to “optimize”—or in reality,
`
`maximize—rents.
`
`7.
`
`Each landlord pays steep fees to license RealPage’s software. RealPage’s
`
`stated goals and value proposition are not a secret. Its executives are blunt: They want
`
`landlords to “avoid the race to the bottom in down markets.” Sometimes RealPage is
`
`even more direct, acknowledging that its software is aimed at “driving every possible
`
`opportunity to increase price” or observing that among landlords, “there is a greater good
`
`in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a
`
`way that actually keeps the entire industry down.”
`
`3
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 8 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`8.
`
`But that is not how the free market works. A free market requires that
`
`landlords compete on the merits, not coordinate pricing. Landlords should win renters by
`
`offering whatever combination of price and quality they think is most attractive. For
`
`example, landlords could lower rents or provide other financial concessions, like free
`
`months of rent, or with investments in amenities like gyms, grilling areas, or pools. Put
`
`differently, the fear of losing a renter to a competitor should motivate rival landlords to
`
`compete vigorously.
`
`9.
`
`RealPage’s revenue management software ingests on a daily basis
`
`nonpublic rental rates, future apartment availability, and changes in competitors’ rates
`
`and occupancy. As competitor-landlords increase their rents, RealPage’s software nudges
`
`other competing landlords to increase their rents as well. RealPage calls this
`
`“maximiz[ing] opportunity[.]” As RealPage explained to one landlord, by using
`
`competitors’ data, they can identify situations where “we may have a $50 increase instead
`
`of a $10 increase for that day.” This is what RealPage encourages as “stretch and pull
`
`pricing.”
`
`10. RealPage allows landlords to manipulate, distort, and subvert market
`
`forces. One landlord observed that RealPage’s software “can eliminate the guessing
`
`game” for landlords’ pricing decisions. Discussing a different RealPage product, another
`
`landlord said: “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data
`
`from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing . . . .” A third
`
`landlord explained, “Our very first goal we came out with immediately out of the gate is
`
`4
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 9 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`that we will not be the reason any particular sub-market takes a rate dive. So for us our
`
`strategy was to hold steady and to keep an eye on the communities around us and our
`
`competitors.”
`
`11. RealPage’s scheme not only distorts competition to the detriment of renters,
`
`but also allows it to reinforce its dominant position in the market for commercial revenue
`
`management software. By its own account, RealPage controls at least 80 percent of that
`
`market. Its dominant position is protected by substantial data advantages due to its
`
`massive reservoir of ill-gotten competitively sensitive information from competing
`
`landlords. No other revenue management company can match RealPage’s access to
`
`landlords’ nonpublic, competitively sensitive rental data. This is why RealPage
`
`acknowledges that it “does not have any true competitors, mainly because our data is
`
`based on real lease transaction data.” RealPage’s conduct is predatory and exclusionary,
`
`which has allowed it to distort the market opportunities for honest providers of revenue
`
`management software.
`
`12. At bottom, RealPage is an algorithmic intermediary that collects, combines,
`
`and exploits landlords’ competitively sensitive information. And in so doing, it enriches
`
`itself and compliant landlords at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices and
`
`honest businesses that would otherwise compete.
`
`13.
`
`The United States and the States of North Carolina, California, Colorado,
`
`Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, acting by and through
`
`their respective Attorneys General, bring this action pursuant to Sections 1 and 2 of the
`
`5
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 10 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`Sherman Act to rid markets of (i) RealPage’s unlawful information-sharing scheme, and
`
`(ii) its illegal monopoly in commercial revenue management software. In so doing,
`
`Plaintiffs seek to restore the free market to deserving individuals, families, and honest
`
`businesses.
`
`II. REALPAGE’S REVENUE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE IS FUELED
`BY NONPUBLIC, COMPETITIVELY SENSITIVE INFORMATION
`SHARED BY LANDLORDS
`
`14. RealPage dominates the market for commercial revenue management
`
`software that landlords use to price apartments, controlling at least 80 percent of that
`
`market, according to its own estimates. RealPage currently offers three revenue
`
`management systems to landlords: YieldStar, AI Revenue Management (AIRM), and
`
`Lease Rent Options (LRO). The company’s main legacy software, YieldStar, is the
`
`product of three acquisitions and subsequent internal development. Its successor, AIRM,
`
`uses much of the same codebase as YieldStar, but RealPage claims that AIRM’s refined
`
`models and forecasting are more precise. RealPage acquired its other revenue
`
`management software, LRO, in 2017. RealPage has made plans to sunset both YieldStar
`
`and LRO by the end of 2024.
`
`15. Competitively sensitive data collected from competing landlords is a
`
`critical input to RealPage’s revenue management software. AIRM and YieldStar collect
`
`this data, such as rental applications, executed new leases, renewal offers and
`
`acceptances, and forward-looking occupancy, and use it to generate price
`
`6
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 11 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`recommendations for the competing landlords. This information is among the most
`
`competitively sensitive data a landlord maintains.
`
`16.
`
`The exploitation of sensitive data from competing landlords is central to
`
`RealPage’s approach. As part of pitching its software to landlords, RealPage highlights
`
`that its pricing algorithms use their competitors’ data sourced directly from “lease
`
`transaction data.” RealPage describes this nonpublic data from competitors as one of
`
`three “building blocks of price” in AIRM and YieldStar. Landlords thus share their
`
`competitively sensitive information with RealPage with the understanding that
`
`RealPage’s software will use the data to generate recommendations for rivals (and vice
`
`versa).
`
`A. Landlords Agree to Share Nonpublic, Competitively Sensitive
`Transactional Data with RealPage for Use in Generating Competitors’
`Pricing Recommendations
`
`17. RealPage amasses nonpublic, competitively sensitive data from competing
`
`landlords through use of its pricing algorithms, other rental property software, and
`
`thousands of monthly phone calls. The combined troves of nonpublic, competitively
`
`sensitive data are much more granular, sensitive, timely, and comprehensive than
`
`alternatives—and far more detailed than any data publicly available to potential renters.
`
`RealPage then uses this data in generating competitors’ pricing recommendations.
`
`18. Data shared through YieldStar and AIRM. Each AIRM and YieldStar
`
`client agrees to share detailed data with RealPage that are private, updated nightly, and
`
`granular. The data include lease-level information on each unit’s effective rent (rent net
`
`7
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 12 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`of discounts), rent discounts, rent term, and lease status, as well as unit characteristics
`
`such as layout and amenities. It also includes the number of potential future renters who
`
`have visited a property or submitted a rental application.
`
`19.
`
`Landlords understand that AIRM and YieldStar use their data to
`
`recommend prices not just for their own units, but also for competitors. For example, a
`
`revenue management director at Landlord 1 testified that she understood that Landlord 1,
`
`and other competing landlords who used AIRM or YieldStar, agreed with RealPage to
`
`share their data, which was combined in a single data pool for use by YieldStar and
`
`AIRM. An executive at Landlord 2 noted the advantages to using YieldStar at a property
`
`if others in the property’s submarket—the small geographic area around the property—
`
`also used YieldStar because “the shared data between the models at different
`
`communities can be a benefit in getting accurate transactional data on a timely basis.”
`
`20.
`
`Landlords agree to provide this information for use by their competitors
`
`because they understand they will be able to leverage the sensitive information of their
`
`rivals in turn. In its pitch to prospective clients, RealPage describes AIRM’s and
`
`YieldStar’s access to competitors’ granular, transactional data as a meaningful tool that it
`
`claims enables landlords to outperform their properties’ competitors by 2–7%. RealPage
`
`clients receive training that highlights the role of competitors’ transactional data in the
`
`price recommendation process.
`
`21. Data Shared Through Other RealPage Products. AIRM and YieldStar are
`
`not the only ways that RealPage shares nonpublic, competitively sensitive information
`
`8
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 13 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`among landlords. RealPage obtains the same confidential transactional data from
`
`landlords that license at least three other programs: OneSite, Performance Analytics with
`
`Benchmarking, and Business Intelligence.
`
`22. OneSite is RealPage’s property management software, which operates as
`
`the central source of data for landlords’ leasing activity. Performance Analytics with
`
`Benchmarking allows landlords to compare the performance of their properties and floor
`
`plans (e.g., a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit) to their competitors. Business Intelligence
`
`is a data analytics tool that pulls data from a landlord’s property management software
`
`and other products.
`
`23.
`
`Each landlord using RealPage’s OneSite, Business Intelligence, and
`
`Performance Analytics with Benchmarking products agrees to share its proprietary data
`
`with RealPage and agrees that RealPage’s revenue management software can use the data
`
`to generate pricing recommendations. The license agreements for these products
`
`specifically identify the shared data, such as pricing information, as confidential,
`
`nonpublic information. RealPage takes this deeply confidential information and uses it to
`
`provide rent recommendations to competitors of these clients.
`
`24.
`
`These agreements grant RealPage access to confidential information from
`
`over 16 million units across the country, including many that do not use its revenue
`
`management products. With respect to Performance Analytics with Benchmarking alone,
`
`a RealPage sales representative told a prospective client that “we have over 16 million
`
`units of data coming from various source operating systems (PMS) [property
`
`9
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 14 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`management software] into the PAB platform,” making RealPage the top choice for
`
`“transactional data benchmarking.” With properties containing approximately 3 million
`
`units using AIRM and YieldStar, these additional agreements meaningfully multiply the
`
`scale of the transactional data used by AIRM and YieldStar. This gives RealPage greater
`
`visibility, including into markets with less penetration by AIRM and YieldStar, granting
`
`even initial AIRM and YieldStar adopters in a new market the benefit of access to a
`
`significant amount of nonpublic, competitively sensitive information.
`
`25.
`
`Landlords understand that AIRM and YieldStar will use data from these
`
`products. A revenue management director at Landlord 1 explained that RealPage ingests
`
`transactional data from several RealPage products, besides AIRM and YieldStar, for use
`
`in revenue management.
`
`26. A revenue management executive at Landlord 2 asked RealPage if other
`
`specific landlords were using RealPage’s non-revenue management products. The
`
`landlord’s owner client was concerned about the data available to YieldStar because
`
`competing properties were unsophisticated and did not use revenue management. This
`
`executive wanted to confirm that “YieldStar will be able to leverage actual transactional
`
`data behind the scenes and not just look at offered rents for their comps.” RealPage
`
`reminded the Landlord 2 executive that RealPage collected transactional data for all users
`
`of OneSite, Business Intelligence, and Performance Analytics with Benchmarking, and
`
`reassured the executive that YieldStar had ample transactional and survey data for that
`
`area.
`
`10
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 15 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`27. Calling Landlords. RealPage has an additional, complementary product
`
`called Market Analytics. Market Analytics compiles data from over 50,000 monthly
`
`phone calls that RealPage makes to landlords across the country. On these calls RealPage
`
`collects nonpublic, competitively sensitive information by floor plan on occupancy rates,
`
`effective rents, and concessions, as well as information on the owner, management
`
`company, and any revenue management software used at the property. These market
`
`surveys cover over 11 million units and approximately 52,000 properties. Landlords,
`
`including but not limited to those that use AIRM, YieldStar, or other RealPage products,
`
`knowingly share this nonpublic information with RealPage.
`
`B. AIRM and YieldStar Users Agree with RealPage to Use the Software to
`Align Pricing
`
`28.
`
`In addition to agreeing to share nonpublic, competitively sensitive data with
`
`RealPage, each AIRM and YieldStar licensee agrees with RealPage to use the AIRM or
`
`YieldStar pricing software as RealPage designed it. Landlords are expected to review
`
`daily AIRM or YieldStar floor plan price recommendations and use the programs to set
`
`scheduled floor plan rents or even unit-level prices.
`
`29. While landlords may not accept every price recommendation, they use
`
`AIRM or YieldStar as their pricing software, regularly review AIRM or YieldStar floor
`
`plan recommendations, use AIRM or YieldStar to set a scheduled floor plan rent, and use
`
`AIRM or YieldStar to set unit-level prices.
`
`30.
`
`Landlords who use AIRM and YieldStar know that others are using the
`
`same software. Some landlords track which revenue management software their
`
`11
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 16 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`competitors use, including by contacting competing properties directly and exchanging
`
`nonpublic information. Other landlords, including prospective AIRM and YieldStar
`
`users, ask RealPage whether there are existing AIRM and YieldStar users nearby before
`
`they themselves license the products.
`
`31. An executive at Landlord 2, for example, explained to her team how she
`
`would learn from RealPage data or from a property’s website whether a property used
`
`revenue management. This information is important because properties that use revenue
`
`management tend to update prices much more frequently, and so a landlord will react
`
`differently to those price changes if it knows the competitor is using revenue
`
`management.
`
`32. RealPage frequently tells prospective and current clients that a “rising tide
`
`raises all ships.” A RealPage revenue management vice president explained that this
`
`phrase means that “there is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially
`
`trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the industry down.”
`
`This rising tide lifts all landlords, including but not limited to AIRM and YieldStar users.
`
`33.
`
`In using AIRM and YieldStar, landlords expect this pricing alignment and
`
`use RealPage software in part for this reason. One landlord echoed the RealPage
`
`executive, using the phrase “a rising tide rises [sic] all ships” to explain that AIRM would
`
`move prices in a “similar manner” to how the top and bottom of the market move.
`
`Elsewhere that same landlord noted that “if everyone in the market is doing well and
`
`everyone in the market has [sic] is having the rates go up, so should ours, right?” An
`
`12
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 17 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
`employee at Landlord 2 referenced RealPage’s use of the phrase “a rising tide raises all
`
`ships” to explain how AIRM would provide price recommendations that amplify market
`
`trends. Multiple landlords have expressed their preference that their competitors use
`
`YieldStar and AIRM because widespread use would benefit them all. An executive of
`
`one landlord (which itself uses YieldStar and AIRM) said in a 2021 earnings call that
`
`more sophisticated, “high-quality competition” was better for that landlord when “they all
`
`use revenue management. They are all smart. They raised rents when they should.”
`
`C. RealPage’s Transactional Data Is Fundamentally Different from Other
`Data Available to Landlords
`
`34.
`
`The data that RealPage uses and supplies is unique relative to public data
`
`available to landlords on listing or property websites. As compared to public data,
`
`RealPage data is much more granular, covers a broader array of business information,
`
`and includes competitively sensitive data across several dimensions. For example:
`
` Information on Actual Transactions. RealPage’s data include, for each
`
`lease, the unit, floor plan, listed rent, final transacted lease price (including
`
`any discounts), and lease term.
`
` Renewals. RealPage’s data include the same information for lease renewals.
`
`Information on renewals is not listed publicly—not even asking rents—
`
`leaving a significant blind spot for landlords not using RealPage.
`
` Time Span. AIRM and YieldStar have access to current and historical lease
`
`data, from the previous day and going back two to three years.
`
`13
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/24 Page 18 of 115
`
`
`
`
`
` Future Demand. The shared data further include information on tenant
`
`demand, including detailed information on inquiries and applications by
`
`potential future tenants.
`
` Accuracy. Landlords have greater assurance of the accuracy of the data
`
`because it comes directly from the landlords’ own databases.
`
` Coverage. The RealPage data covers millions of units from users of its
`
`revenue management software and other products.
`
`35. RealPage touts how its data is different. As one RealPage pitch deck put it,
`
`“we have [the] most data and the best data.” And the “[q]uality of data is best in class
`
`given that it is ‘lease transaction data’—this provides insight into performance data from
`
`actual signed leases, both new and renewal, net effective of concessions.” Another noted
`
`that without YieldStar “you’ll be pricing your renewals in the dark without insight into
`
`actual lease transaction data that YS uses to help you make pricing decisions. This is
`
`critical to price renewals right[,] especially in a downturn.”
`
`36. Access to this data proves important in winning over revenue management
`
`clients, including skeptical ones. One RealPage senior manager noted that a “highly
`
`suspicious CFO” was won over in part by YieldStar’s “lease transaction data” that
`
`allowed his company to “achieve what his people couldn’t achieve on their own.”
`
`37. Another landlord’s internal training presentation on YieldStar highlighted
`
`the importance of having access to competitors’ transactional data:
`
`14
`
`Case 1:24-cv-00710 Document 1 Filed 08/23/2