>Armed with competing landlords’ data, RealPage also encourages loyalty to the algorithm’s recommendations through, among other measures, “auto accept” functionality and pricing advisors who monitor landlords’ compliance.I think the "private prices" + "autoaccept" + "compliance" is the key misbehavior that gets RealPage into legal trouble.
If competitors want to converge on prices in a legal manner, they have to do out in the open via "price signaling" via public posting of prices. That's how it's legally possible for competitors in other industries to do it:
- gas stations looking at each others signs of prices and quickly adjusting to match;
- e-auctions like Ebay/Reverb showing a seller what the previous range of sold prices were;
- Kelly "Blue Book" showing current used car market prices
- Zillow publicly showing rental rates, etc.
Neither the platform nor the sellers in those examples get in trouble for "price fixing".
In contrast, the privately shared pricing with compliance monitoring by the platform is too coordinated to avoid legal scrutiny.
I think the "private prices" + "autoaccept" + "compliance" is the key misbehavior that gets RealPage into legal trouble.
If competitors want to converge on prices in a legal manner, they have to do out in the open via "price signaling" via public posting of prices. That's how it's legally possible for competitors in other industries to do it:
- gas stations looking at each others signs of prices and quickly adjusting to match;
- e-auctions like Ebay/Reverb showing a seller what the previous range of sold prices were;
- Kelly "Blue Book" showing current used car market prices
- Zillow publicly showing rental rates, etc.
Neither the platform nor the sellers in those examples get in trouble for "price fixing".
In contrast, the privately shared pricing with compliance monitoring by the platform is too coordinated to avoid legal scrutiny.