FTC issues warnings to rental software firms on price transparency

A week after settling a lawsuit with rental property management company Greystar, it appears the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) involvement in the rental property management space is not waning. 

On Tuesday, the government regulator announced that it had sent letters to 13 property management software providers nationwide warning them that they may be violating the law if they inhibit rental property managers and owners from providing consumers with accurate pricing information in their marketing efforts. 

According to the FTC, if the software providers “hinder the flow of accurate pricing information in rental listings, those providers may be depriving consumers of the ability to make informed purchasing decisions, negatively affecting market efficiency.”

According to the letters, information obtained by the FTC suggests that the software companies are failing to include all mandatory fees in monthly rental prices, hampering the ability of rental property mangers from advertising accurate total monthly costs. The FTC says this may harm consumers by preventing prospective renters from seeing complete pricing information on the mangers’ websites and other online listing platforms. 

“The FTC is committed to rooting out anticompetitive, unfair and deceptive acts or practices in the rental housing market,” Christopher Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “Companies need to compete on price and consumers need accurate and non-deceptive information to make the best-informed decisions possible.”

If companies engage in this conduct, the letter says they may be subject to legal action, as well as federal district court injunctions and civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation.

Last week, the FTC announced its settlement with Greystar, in which the rental property management firm agreed to pay $23 million to the FTC and $1 million to the state of Colorado for allegedly deceiving consumers about rental prices.

In addition to this action from the FTC, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently settled its lawsuit with rental pricing software firm RealPage. In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged that RealPage’s revenue management software has relied on nonpublic, competitively sensitive information shared by landlords to set rental prices, and that the software has included features designed to limit rental price decreases and enable competitors to align their prices.