Klobuchar Statement on Department of Justice Antitrust Lawsuit Against RealPage

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chair of the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, issued the statement below following the announcement of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division's lawsuit against RealPage for facilitating price fixing in rental housing markets.

"Housing is the single biggest expense for American families and RealPage has used its algorithms to help landlords fix rental prices and limit competition, driving up the cost of housing and limiting supply. I have long called for common sense action to address this problem and now the Justice Department is taking it on," said Klobuchar. "Today's antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department is a major step toward holding RealPage accountable and demonstrates how aggressive enforcement of our antitrust laws helps American families. I'll keep fighting to make sure our antitrust enforcers have resources they need to protect Americans from anticompetitive conduct and to close loopholes in our laws to prevent algorithmic tools from being used for price fixing."

Klobuchar is a leader in the Senate in pushing to ensure our competition laws are as sophisticated as the technologies used in today's modern economy.

In November 2022, Klobuchar, along with Senators Durbin and Booker, urged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate potential anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent rates, voicing their concern that RealPage's pricing algorithms could artificially inflate rental rates and facilitate collusion.

As Chair of the Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights subcommittee, Klobuchar held two hearings in late 2023 exploring how pricing algorithms can be used to harm consumers, including Examining Competition and Consumer Rights in Housing Markets and The New Invisible Hand? The Impact of Algorithms on Competition and Consumer Rights. Both hearings highlighted the problem of companies sharing competitively sensitive, non-public data with pricing algorithms, allowing competitors to increase profits by charging higher prices and reducing output.

In February, Klobuchar introduced the Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act to strengthen the law to address algorithmic price fixing, requires transparency by companies that use algorithms to set prices, bans companies from using competitively sensitive information from their direct competitors to inform or train a pricing algorithm, and directs the FTC to study pricing algorithms' impact on competition.

Additionally, in February, Klobuchar joined Senator Wyden in introducing the Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act to ensure that large landlords cannot skirt antitrust law and collude to increase rent prices across the country.

Klobuchar leads the American Innovation and Choice Online Act with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). This bipartisan legislation to restore online competition by preventing technology companies from abusing their market power to harm competition, online businesses, and consumers. Last year, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act made history as the first digital competition bill to advance in Congress since the dawn of the internet when it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a 16-6 vote.

In May 2024, Klobuchar introduced the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act to give federal antitrust enforcers the resources they need to do their jobs, strengthen prohibitions on anticompetitive conduct and mergers, and make additional reforms to improve enforcement.

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