It is alleged that they use proprietary data, and it looks like they definitely do.
RealPage doesn't appear to police landlord's price setting decisions. I see how you could get this from the first paragraph here, but the paragraph immediately after dispels it:
> 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.
I think "expected to review... use the program to set rents" must be a description of how the software is designed, not some reward or penalty scheme for setting recommended prices.
There's a whole section starting on page 54 that details how RealPage encourages landlords to converge on price, and there's no enforcement mechanism mentioned.
The law also does not prohibit a company from dominating a market. It prohibits using monopoly power to engage in certain practices. And monopoly position isn't an input to the price fixing function: it would be illegal even if between two self-employed plumbers.
> There's a whole section starting on page 54 that details how RealPage encourages landlords to converge on price, and there's no enforcement mechanism mentioned.
I mean, not sure what else I'd call something like this:
>If a property manager disagrees with the direction of a recommended price change—e.g., the manager wants to implement a price decrease when the model recommends a price increase—the RealPage pricing advisor escalates the dispute to the manager’s superior.
It is alleged that they use proprietary data, and it looks like they definitely do.
RealPage doesn't appear to police landlord's price setting decisions. I see how you could get this from the first paragraph here, but the paragraph immediately after dispels it:
> 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.
I think "expected to review... use the program to set rents" must be a description of how the software is designed, not some reward or penalty scheme for setting recommended prices.
There's a whole section starting on page 54 that details how RealPage encourages landlords to converge on price, and there's no enforcement mechanism mentioned.
The law also does not prohibit a company from dominating a market. It prohibits using monopoly power to engage in certain practices. And monopoly position isn't an input to the price fixing function: it would be illegal even if between two self-employed plumbers.