Editorial: The New York Times

• The Justice Department accuses Texas company, RealPage, of orchestrating nationwide apartment pricing through their software.
• Technology has simplified the process of fixing uniform prices at a corporate level which used to require face-to-face meetings and agreements among executives.
• The RealPage case is significant as it highlights the growing use of algorithms to set prices, sometimes favoring the landlords at the expense of their customers.
• RealPage defends that its software is designed to be legally compliant and its sole function is to advise landlords, not coordinate prices.
• RealPage can also manipulate prices because the large apartment building market is largely dominated by same big national landlords.

Conclusion: The RealPage case underscores the necessity to monitor potential abuses of new technologies such as algorithmic price setting. The continued expansion of these large landlords could effectively negate efforts against algorithmic price fixing.

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