WORLD NEWS FLASH
UNITED STATES
The Justice Department, together with the Attorneys General of North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Aug. 23 against RealPage Inc. for its unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing and to monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software that landlords use to price apartments.
RealPage’s alleged conduct deprives renters of the benefits of competition on apartment leasing terms and harms millions of Americans. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and alleges that RealPage violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
The complaint alleges that RealPage contracts with competing landlords who agree to share with RealPage nonpublic, competitively sensitive information about their apartment rental rates and other lease terms to train and run RealPage’s algorithmic pricing software. This software then generates recommendations, including on apartment rental pricing and other terms, for participating landlords based on their and their rivals’ competitively sensitive information.
The complaint further alleges that in a free market, these landlords would otherwise be competing independently to attract renters based on pricing, discounts, concessions, lease terms, and other dimensions of apartment leasing. RealPage also uses this scheme and its substantial data trove to maintain a monopoly in the market for commercial revenue management software. The complaint seeks to end RealPage’s illegal conduct and restore competition for the benefit of renters in states across the country.
“Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that RealPage’s pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents. Using software as the sharing mechanism does not immunize this scheme from Sherman Act liability, and the Justice Department will continue to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws and protect the American people from those who violate them.”
The complaint cites internal documents and sworn testimony from RealPage and commercial landlords that make plain RealPage’s and landlords’ objective to maximize rental pricing and profitability at the expense of renters. For example:
- RealPage acknowledged that its software is aimed at maximizing prices for landlords, referring to its products as “driving every possible opportunity to increase price,” “avoid(ing) the race to the bottom in down markets,” and “a rising tide raises all ships.”
- A RealPage executive observed that its products help landlords avoid competing on the merits, noting that “there is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry down.”
- A RealPage executive explained to a landlord that using competitor data can help identify situations where the landlord “may have a $50 increase instead of a $10 increase for the day.”
- Another landlord commented about RealPage’s product, “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing…”
The complaint alleges that RealPage’s agreements and conduct harm the competitive process in local rental markets for multi-family dwellings across the United States. 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.
As a result, RealPage’s software tends to maximize price increases, minimize price decreases, and maximize landlords’ pricing power. RealPage also trained landlords to limit concessions (e.g., free month(s) of rent) and other discounts to renters. The complaint also cites internal documents from RealPage and landlords touting the fact that landlords have responded by reducing renter concessions.
The complaint separately alleges that RealPage has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over commercial revenue management software for multi-family dwellings in the United States, in which RealPage commands approximately 80% market share. Landlords agree to share their competitively sensitive data with RealPage in return for pricing recommendations and decisions that are the result of combining and analyzing competitors’ sensitive data. This creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop that strengthens RealPage’s grip on the market and makes it harder for honest businesses to compete on the merits.
RealPage Inc., is a property management software company headquartered in Richardson, Texas.
MASS SHOOTING UPDATE
Information recent as of 8-27-2024 at 12 p.m.
2024 Mass Shooting Stats: (Source: Mass Shooting Tracker – https://www.massshootingtracker.site/data/?year=2024)
- Total Mass Shootings: 426
- Total Dead: 504
- Total Wounded: 1769
- Shootings Per Day: 1.77
- Days Reached in Year 2024 as of August 27: 240
MIDDLE EAST
POLIO VACCINES ARRIVE IN GAZA
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is closely following negotiations in Doha focused on trying to end the war in Gaza, where the situation continues to remain catastrophic after more than 10 months of unrelenting war.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced on Aug. 26 the arrival of 1.2 million doses of vital polio vaccines in Gaza, amid urgent calls for humanitarian pauses to reach hundreds of thousands of at-risk children.
More than 640,000 children are targeted to receive the polio type two (nOPV) vaccines, UNICEF said in a post on X.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the UN’s main agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and other partners aim to coordinate to reach the unvaccinated as the war grinds on against the backdrop of multiple civilian displacements.
The Israeli government agency COGAT said vaccine shipments had arrived in Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, adding that the vaccination campaign will be conducted in coordination with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as part of “routine” humanitarian pauses.
Gaza has been in the grip of an ongoing war following the October 7 terror attacks last year by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel.
More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in the enclave, according to the Strip’s health ministry, and critical infrastructure, including schools-turned displacement shelters, hospitals and clinics has been destroyed.
A case of polio was confirmed in Gaza last week, in a 10-month-old child. It was the first such instance of the lifelong crippling disease in over 25 years. Though there is no cure, vaccines against the disease can protect a child for life.
The child had developed paralysis in the lower left leg and is reported to be in a stable condition.
“Polio will not make the distinction between Palestinian and Israeli children,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said last week, highlighting the need for urgent pause in fighting to mitigate the risk of spread of the disease.
He reiterated the call on Aug. 26, stressing that UN agencies and partners “stand ready to vaccinate children, but need a humanitarian pause.”
Meanwhile, the plight of civilians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip continues unabated.
According to UNRWA, due to ongoing military operations in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza only three of the area’s 18 water wells remain functional, resulting in 85 percent water shortfall.
“Not only are people in Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs,” the agency said.
Risk of other deadly infectious disease also remains high with water and sanitation systems disrupted across the enclave, including at hospitals, WHO warned.
Its effort to mitigate the threat continues. The agency recently provided hospitals in north and south Gaza with a range of critical medical supplies, including anesthesia and analgesic drugs to cover the needs of around 44,500 patients.
Some 200 ICU beds were also delivered to Gaza and are expected to support at least five health facilities in expanding bed capacity, the agency added in a separate post.
EUROPE
DUTCH AUTHORITY SMOKES UBER
On Aug. 26, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) imposed a fine of 290 million euros on Uber. The Dutch DPA found that Uber transferred personal data of European taxi drivers to the United States (US) and failed to appropriately safeguard the data with regard to these transfers. According to the Dutch DPA, this constitutes a serious violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In the meantime, Uber has ended the violation.
“In Europe, the GDPR protects the fundamental rights of people, by requiring businesses and governments to handle personal data with due care,” Dutch DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen says. “But sadly, this is not self-evident outside Europe. Think of governments that can tap data on a large scale. That is why businesses are usually obliged to take additional measures if they store personal data of Europeans outside the European Union. Uber did not meet the requirements of the GDPR to ensure the level of protection to the data with regard to transfers to the US. That is very serious.”
The Dutch DPA found that Uber collected, among other things, sensitive information of drivers from Europe and retained it on servers in the US. It concerns account details and taxi licenses, but also location data, photos, payment details, identity documents, and in some cases even criminal and medical data of drivers.
For a period of over 2 years, Uber transferred those data to Uber’s headquarters in the US, without using transfer tools. Because of this, the protection of personal data was not sufficient. The Court of Justice of the EU invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield in 2020.
According to the Court, Standard Contractual Clauses could still provide a valid basis for transferring data to countries outside the EU, but only if an equivalent level of protection can be guaranteed in practice.
Because Uber no longer used Standard Contractual Clauses from August 2021, the data of drivers from the EU were insufficiently protected, according to the Dutch DPA. Since the end of last year, Uber uses the successor to the Privacy Shield.
The Dutch DPA started the investigation on Uber after more than 170 French drivers complained to the French human rights interest group the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), which subsequently submitted a complaint to the French DPA.
Pursuant to the GDPR, businesses that process data in several EU Member States have to deal with one DPA: the authority in the country in which the business has its main establishment. Uber’s European headquarters is based in the Netherlands. During the investigation, the Dutch DPA closely cooperated with the French DPA and coordinated the decision with other European DPAs.
All DPAs in Europe calculate the amount of fines for businesses in the same manner. Those fines amount to a maximum of 4% of the worldwide annual turnover of a business. Uber had a worldwide turnover of around 34.5 billion euro in 2023. Uber has indicated its intent to object to the fine.
This is the third fine that the Dutch DPA imposes on Uber. The Dutch DPA imposed a fine of 600,000 euro on Uber in 2018, and a fine of 10 million euro in 2023. Uber has objected to this last fine.
