I don’t know much about the company or situation, admittedly. But this wasn’t the strongest claim:
> they said their probe involved data scientists who dug into computer code to understand how these algorithms set prices
DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
261–270 of 646 posts
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#262Curious where the line is supposed to be for gathering market information and making pricing decisions.
Surely it would be legal if I had an employee scour all the rental listings in my area and use that to give me price distributions for similar units to the ones I’m advertising.
But according to the DOJ if I hire a company to do this, it’s not?
What if I have two units to list and it wouldn’t make sense for me to hire a whole employee for this purpose? I can’t share the cost with other small players by paying a company that specializes in this task? The big companies get this benefit due to their scale and the little guys don’t?
If I wrote a program to do this for me, would that be legal?
Could I sell the program to others?
Could I open source it?
Could I sell a hosted version of the program?
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#263[flagged]
"But as we allege, these are more than just recommendations. RealPage actively polices landlords’ compliance with those recommendations. It also monitors landlords’ other policies by, for example, trying to stop concessions that landlords use to attract or retain renters."
Directly from the DOJ press release.
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#264I am excited and optimistic that we appear to be applying economic principles to housing! Now that we're getting rid of centralized price controls / collusion, next can we do supply/demand?
On the demand side it would be nice to keep PE firms from hoovering up all the single family homes.
https://www.thesling.org/are-hedge-funds-and-private-equity-...
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#265[flagged]
> It would be different if the software made you promise (by contract, for example) to not go below a certain price.
From the reporting of this over the past 2 years, it became very clear they required them to accept the prices.
> Specifically, every morning, RealPage provides participating Lessors with recommended price levels. ... If Lessors wish to diverge from the “approved pricing” they must submit reasoning for doing so and await approval. ... But RealPage emphasizes the need for discipline among participating Lessors and urges them that for its coordinated algorithmic pricing to be the most successful in increasing rents, participating Lessors must adopt RealPage’s pricing at least 80% of the time.
https://cohost.org/morayati/post/925436-i-saw-real-page-s-cr...
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#266I am excited and optimistic that we appear to be applying economic principles to housing! Now that we're getting rid of centralized price controls / collusion, next can we do supply/demand?
Getting rid of the law of supply and demand is like getting rid of Boyle’s law. Legislate whatever you want but the behavior those laws model will still exist.
I prefer to think of it this way. I like my markets free as in GPL, not free as in BSD. That is, I want the market itself to be free with limitations on the participants that keep them from taking it for themselves.
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#267I am excited and optimistic that we appear to be applying economic principles to housing! Now that we're getting rid of centralized price controls / collusion, next can we do supply/demand?
On the demand side it would be nice to keep PE firms from hoovering up all the single family homes. https://www.thesling.org/are-hedge-funds-and-private-equity-...
Would be interesting to see what would happen if renters had the option to buy the underlying property/unit somehow after being a tenant for a certain time.
The goal should be ownership for folks who want it, not a nation of renters.
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#268Curious where the line is supposed to be for gathering market information and making pricing decisions. Surely it would be legal if I had an employee scour all the rental listings in my area and use that to give me price distributions for similar units to the ones I’m advertising. But according to the DOJ if I hire a company to do this, it’s not? What if I have two units to list and it wouldn’t make sense for me to h…
> But according to the DOJ if I hire a company to do this, it’s not?
That’s not what was happening. Your understand of the suit is missing the real problems.
They had a program for automatic rent increases that were calculated based on data that would have been private in normal markets (rent being charged for units not on the open market). There were a lot of factors beyond simply informing people what could be found in public data.
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#269Curious where the line is supposed to be for gathering market information and making pricing decisions. Surely it would be legal if I had an employee scour all the rental listings in my area and use that to give me price distributions for similar units to the ones I’m advertising. But according to the DOJ if I hire a company to do this, it’s not? What if I have two units to list and it wouldn’t make sense for me to h…
You can do those things. What you can’t do is acquire a huge chunk of the market and require your users to accept the prices you “suggest” to them based on your knowledge of what their competitors are charging.
Re: DOJ sues realpage for algorithmic pricing scheme that harms renters
#270[flagged]
> It would be different if the software made you promise (by contract, for example) to not go below a certain price. From the reporting of this over the past 2 years, it became very clear they required them to accept the prices. > Specifically, every morning, RealPage provides participating Lessors with recommended price levels. ... If Lessors wish to diverge from the “approved pricing” they must submit reasoning for…
Thanks for pointing to that. My understanding is wrong, then.
If they are pressuring landlords to hold to a price then it is for sure price fixing.
This is obviously illegal.