The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said Monday, July 6, 2026, that it had filed a proposed settlement with Willow Bridge Property Company LLC to resolve the government’s claims in an ongoing rental-pricing case. The department said the case is part of a broader enforcement action in federal court in North Carolina focused on alleged algorithmic coordination, the use of competitors’ competitively sensitive data, and other anticompetitive practices in rental markets.

According to the department, the proposed consent decree would prohibit Willow Bridge from using an anticompetitive algorithm that generates pricing recommendations from competitors’ sensitive data or includes certain anticompetitive features. It would also bar the company from sharing competitively sensitive information with competitors, require a court-appointed monitor in some circumstances, and stop it from attending or participating in RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords. The company would also have to cooperate with the government’s claims against other defendants.

The department said the allegations stem from a Jan. 7, 2025 complaint that accused Willow Bridge and other landlord co-defendants of setting rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information through pricing algorithms. The filing said the landlords shared sensitive data to generate pricing recommendations using RealPage’s software and discussed pricing strategies, rents and software parameters with one another.

The settlement is not a final judgment of liability. Under the Tunney Act, the proposed decree and a competitive impact statement will be published in the Federal Register, followed by a public comment period before the court can decide whether to enter final judgment. If approved, the deal would settle the government’s claims against Willow Bridge while the broader case against other defendants continues.