President Donald Trump’s Antitrust chief Gail Slater ended the Biden DOJ’s antitrust case against alleged software rent-fixing conspirator RealPage.
National average rent fell 0.3 percent from August,” according to the Wall Street Journal, and some of that relief happened because Biden’s DOJ had sued data sharing software and consulting firm RealPage, which uses algorithms to help giant landlords collude to raise rent and keep other properties off the market.
But Trump assistant attorney general Abigail Slater announced that her antitrust division at the department of justice had settled the lawsuit with a sweet deal for Realpage that exacted no penalties and extracted no admission of wrongdoing from the company.
“The cost of living is top of mind as we continue to do our important work at the antitrust division. Thank you for your attention to this matter and thanksgiving wishes to you all — even the haters,” said Slater, while agreeing to a “settlement” that Realpage company attorney Stephen Weissman described as a “blessing.”
Meanwhile, MS NOW anchor Ali Velshi said nine states that were part of that lawsuit against Realpage’s rent-hiking practices have rebelled against the settlement and refused to sign on to it.
“In a healthy democracy, antitrust enforcers are supposed to protect consumers like you. In reality, it looks like they’re working against you,” reported Velshi. “That this is all happening while millions of people struggle to pay for rent, groceries and health insurance is shameful. That President Trump openly mocks the affordability crisis while his antitrust people help fuel it is diabolical.”
Former federal trade commissioner Lina Khan agreed, calling the settlement “too weak to describe as a slap on the wrist.”
“This is a scheme that systematically hiked rent for people,” said Khan, who Trump replaced when he returned to the White House for his second term. “By one estimate, algorithmic price fixing accounted for Americans overpaying by $3 billion. The Arizona attorney general, when she brought her lawsuit against Realpage, found that residents in Phoenix had been overpaying [their rent] by 30 percent, which is, for most families, one of the largest expenses that they face month to month.”
“This was inflating prices left and right all across the country because this corporation had devised a new way using algorithms to facilitate price fixing and collusion,” Khan continued. “… Realpage is paying $0. There’s no admission of wrongdoing. And, in fact, Realpage is now using this DOJ settlement to fight state laws that are trying to ban algorithmic price fixing. The governor of New York recently signed a bill that would prohibit algorithmic price fixing, and Realpage has sued, saying, ‘this justice department settlement actually says that our business practices are totally fair game.’”
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