Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced April 11 that this office reached an agreement with Cortland Management. In a press release, the AG said that Cortland agreed not to use non-public data from RealPage. The release noted that North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined Weiser in the settlement.
Last year, Weiser sued RealPage, a property management software company. He alleged that the company engaged in rental price-fixing. That lawsuit then expanded to the six largest landlords in the country, including Cortland. Several other states and the U.S. Department of Justice also joined the suit against RealPage and the group of landlords in January.
The release from Weiser’s office noted that the settlement resolved the allegations against Cortland in the RealPage suit, following a settlement with the DOJ. According to the release, Cortland agreed to assist Colorado in the ongoing lawsuit against RealPage.
“Coloradans who are struggling to make ends meet are getting hammered by high rent prices, and landlords that collude using private data from RealPage are a part of the problem,” said Weiser in a release. “We are always looking at collaborative solutions when it comes to ensuring a competitive and fair marketplace, and I’m glad that Cortland will no longer be using non-public data from RealPage or software like it to set rents. I will continue to hold accountable any landlord that engages in irresponsible, harmful, and anticompetitive conduct that harms renters by colluding to jack up rents.”
Through the settlement, Cortland will not be barred from using third-party revenue management software for rent-setting, but the types and sources of data available for use will be restricted. The release notes that the company agreed not to use non-public data from other property management companies to set rents, not to pool or combine non-public data from Cortland-run properties with different owners and not to share that data with non-Cortland property owners. It is also barred from using software that incorporates artificial rent floors or price decrease limits.
Under the agreement, Colorado and North Carolina can participate in compliance inspections and review compliance information Cortland shares with federal officials pursuant to its settlement with the DOJ.