Hausfeld, Berger Montague, Lieff Cabraser, and Justice Catalyst File Federal Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit Against Alleged Rental Housing Cartel
October 18, 2022 (San Diego) – Today, Hausfeld LLP, Berger Montague PC, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Justice Catalyst Law, filed a federal antitrust class action against RealPage, Inc. (“RealPage”) and several of RealPage’s property management clients (the “Lessor Defendants”) (collectively, “Defendants”). Counsel represents the plaintiffs who filed this suit, as well as a proposed class of similarly situated individuals who paid inflated prices for the rental of real estate from the Lessor Defendants and other clients of RealPage.
The complaint alleges that Defendants conspired to use RealPage’s so-called “revenue management” service to set rental prices and restrict the supply of available rental units in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Plaintiffs allege that by using this conspiracy to stifle competition, Defendants inflated rents to supra-competitive levels and unlawfully suppressed the supply of rental housing, injuring the plaintiffs and thousands of renters across the United States.
Defendant RealPage was a public company from 2010 until 2020, when it was purchased by private equity firm, Thoma Bravo, in a transaction that valued RealPage at approximately $10.2 billion. The Lessor Defendants are some of the largest owners and managers of rental real estate in the United States.
"Today's lawsuit plausibly alleges that Lessors of rental units have coordinated to drive rents up to unprecedented levels, exacerbating the nation's affordable housing crisis,” said Gary I. Smith Jr., a Partner at Hausfeld. “We look forward to vindicating our clients' rights in this important federal antitrust litigation.”
Attorneys working on the case include Gary I. Smith Jr., Swathi Bojedla, and Katie R. Beran from Hausfeld, Sophia M. Rios, Eric L. Cramer, Michaela L. Wallin, and Daniel J. Walker from Berger Montague, Brendan P. Glackin and Dean M. Harvey from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Janet M. Herold, Benjamin D. Elga, and Lucy B. Bansal from Justice Catalyst Law.
The full complaint can be viewed here.
Media
Deborah Schwartz, Media Relations
+ 1 240 355-8838
deborah@mediarelationsinc.com
About Hausfeld
Hausfeld is a leading litigation law firm with offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as in the UK and continental Europe. In the last decade, Hausfeld has won landmark trials, negotiated complex settlements, and recovered billions of dollars for clients both in and out of court. Hausfeld lawyers consistently apply forward-thinking ideas and creative solutions to the most vexing global legal challenges faced by clients. As a result, the firm’s litigators have developed numerous innovative legal theories that have expanded the quality and availability of legal recourse for claimants around the globe. Visit https://www.hausfeld.com for more information.
About Berger Montague PC
Berger Montague—with offices in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and San Diego—is one of the nation’s most experienced and successful complex litigation firms. Berger Montague pioneered the antitrust class action more than five decades ago and prides itself on successfully representing plaintiffs in some of the most important class action cases in the country. Included among the more than $40 billion the firm has recovered in verdicts and settlements for class members over 50 years, the firm has achieved one of the largest antitrust class action settlements in US history (nearly $6 billion).
About Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a 120-attorney law firm with offices in San Francisco, New York, Nashville, and Munich. We are among the largest law firms in the United States that only represent plaintiffs. Driven by a strong and principled sense of social justice, we are committed to achieving justice for investors, consumers, employees, patients, and business owners; promoting safer products and fair competition; protecting our environment; assisting individuals blow the whistle on fraud; safeguarding the rights of patent and copyright holders; ensuring our right to privacy is preserved; and upholding the civil rights of citizens worldwide. Since our founding in 1972, Lieff Cabraser has litigated and resolved hundreds of class action lawsuits and thousands of individual cases. We have played a significant role in achieving verdicts and settlements valued at $100 million or greater in 86 separate cases, including 28 cases with recoveries in excess of $1 billion. Many of these cases are among the most significant civil cases in the United States over the past half century.
About Justice Catalyst Law, Inc.
Justice Catalyst Law, Inc. (JCL) is a nonprofit law firm that activates path-breaking approaches to social justice lawyering that have real-world impact and improve the lives of those denied access to justice. JCL’s work emphasizes the commercial and private rights violations that underlie systemic social and economic injustice. By putting problems and people first, and analyzing them from multiple perspectives, JCL creatively explores whether litigation can advance human and civil rights or economic and social justice. JCL’s team has extensive expertise in effectuating broad-scale change through legal work in both the litigation and policy arenas and have been certified as class counsel in a range of civil rights, wage and hour, consumer, and antitrust class actions nationwide. More information about JCL is available at www.justicecatalyst.org.