Court Approves $360 Million in RealPage Settlements With 41 Landlords and Managers

On October 15, a federal judge in Nashville gave final approval to settlements between renters and 41 apartment owners and managers in the antitrust case over RealPage's rent pricing software. Together the settlements total $359,925,000 in cash. The settling companies include Greystar, Equity Residential, Camden, Cortland, Bozzuto and Mid-America Apartment Communities. None of them admitted wrongdoing.

U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. signed the final approval order following a fairness hearing held the same day. He found the settlements "in all respects, fair, reasonable, and adequate." The order dismisses the renters' claims against the settling companies with prejudice and expressly preserves claims against any defendant that did not settle. RealPage is not on the list of settling defendants.

What the agreements require

The order directs each settling defendant to carry out the conduct terms in its own agreement. The court's injunction order describes those terms in general language. Where an agreement provides for them, they restrict the sharing and use of nonpublic competitor pricing data and the use of algorithmic pricing recommendations derived from it.

PropertyOps Post reviewed the 37 settlement agreements on the settlement website. They cover 41 companies because some agreements include affiliated defendants. Thirty four of the agreements include commitments about nonpublic or confidential pricing data. Generally, the company may not give its nonpublic lease data to RealPage or competitors for use in pricing, and it may not use pricing tools that rely on competitors' nonpublic data. Most of these commitments last five years, but the start date varies. Some begin at preliminary approval and others at final judgment.

The wording also varies. Greystar's agreement, for example, still permits pricing based on the property owner's own nonpublic data and restricts nonpublic data from outside that owner. Three agreements contain no pricing data restrictions. Brookfield's agreement notes that it stopped using RealPage's revenue management services as of November 1, 2024. The agreements with Mission Rock and Lantower cover arbitration and cooperation with the plaintiffs, but they don't include data restrictions.

Leasing teams should pay attention to the arbitration terms. According to the injunction order, some agreements bar the company from invoking or enforcing arbitration provisions and class action waivers against class members on the released claims, or commit it to forgo or remove those provisions. Several agreements, including those with Greystar, Mission Rock and Lantower, also require the company to provide documents and data to the plaintiffs for the case against the defendants that did not settle.

Because the terms differ, revenue management and leasing leads at a settling company should work from that company's own agreement.

How the money is divided

The court approved the settlements in two groups, according to the court's docket entry. The first group had 26 agreements covering 27 defendants and totaled $141.8 million. It received preliminary approval on November 21, 2025. The second group had 11 agreements covering 14 defendants and totaled $218.125 million. It received preliminary approval on May 22, 2026.

In a separate order signed the same day, the court awarded class counsel $119,975,000, one third of the fund. It also approved about $14.7 million in expenses, a $3.5 million reserve for future litigation costs and $10,000 for each of the 10 named plaintiffs.

Class members are people who paid rent directly to an owner or manager at a property licensed for RealPage's revenue management products between October 18, 2018 and November 21, 2025. Those who file valid claims share the remaining money. Under the plan the court approved, payments are based on rent paid and adjusted by an estimated overcharge for each market, with a 2% baseline where no market estimate exists and a $10 minimum. The plaintiffs' brief supporting final approval says the market estimates range from 2% to 13% across 47 metro areas. The court notice.pdf) sets the claims deadline at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on January 29, 2027.

The plaintiffs' brief.pdf) reported that 1,456 class members asked to be excluded and six objected. It said 1,384 of the exclusion forms came from one law firm, Mason & Perry, and noted that the number may go down as the forms are checked. In August, the court ordered a separate notice to everyone the firm contacted. The notice explained that the court had received information raising questions about whether those people had what they needed to decide. The court also moved the exclusion deadline for all class members from September 1 to September 22. The final approval order overrules the objections.

The state cases stay open

The settlements do not release claims by states for civil penalties or injunctive relief. The injunction order says this directly.

According to the plaintiffs' brief, the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington objected to the settlements. The court denied an earlier state motion to intervene on July 16, and the states appealed the May 22 orders on July 21. A later state motion was still pending when the brief was filed on September 25.

Other state cases are moving separately. On October 2, California's attorney general announced a ruling that, in the office's words, "denies RealPage and landlords' attempt to evade responsibility" in the state's rent pricing lawsuit. That same day, North Carolina's attorney general said a court had denied RealPage's attempt to have the state's case dismissed.

In the class action, the plaintiffs filed for class certification against the defendants that did not settle on October 2, according to the settlement website's document list. Their final approval brief argues that those defendants can be held jointly and severally liable for the entire alleged overcharge, minus the settlement amounts. That argument is the plaintiffs' position, and the court has not ruled on it.

The injunction order also sets the timing. A settlement takes effect only after the time to appeal expires with no appeal, or after any appeal is resolved. Until then, class members are barred from pursuing the released claims against the settling companies.

Questions leasing offices may get

Class members received court notices, and residents may ask site staff about them. Leasing staff can't tell a resident whether they qualify or what they might receive. The settlement website and claims administrator are the places to send those questions, and regional teams should agree on that answer in advance.

Operators outside the case can use the agreements as a reference when they review a pricing software contract. Ask the vendor what data its rent recommendations draw on, and whether any of it is nonpublic lease data from other owners.