Pedestrians walk past Cushman & Wakefield Inc. signage in front of an office building for lease in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, Florida, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against six large landlords, including Cushman & Wakefield, accusing them of engaging in anticompetitive practices in housing rental markets. The lawsuit alleges that the landlords used property management software company RealPage to share non-public information about rental pricing and to collude on pricing strategies with competitors.
The landlords accused of engaging in these practices include Cushman & Wakefield, Greystar Real Estate Partners, Blackstone’s LivCor, Camden Property Trust, Cushman’s Pinnacle Property Management Services, and Willow Bridge Property Co. The lawsuit claims that the landlords shared pricing information and strategies with each other through RealPage’s software and user groups, which allowed them to fix rents and limit competition.
RealPage has denied the allegations and is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed. A spokesperson for Cushman & Wakefield said that Pinnacle is solely a property manager and does not own properties or set pricing. Greystar denied engaging in anti-competitive practices and said it would defend against the claims.
The lawsuit also alleges that the landlords harmed renters in local housing markets in Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington.