North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s RealPage settlements have so far produced two deals: an April 2025 agreement with Cortland Management that bars the company from using algorithmic rent-setting software but includes no money, and a November 2025 agreement with Greystar Management, the state’s largest apartment landlord, that pairs the same conduct restrictions with a $7 million payment shared among nine states. Neither settlement sends refunds directly to North Carolina tenants. Four landlords and RealPage itself remain in active litigation.
What Jackson Sued Over
On January 7, 2025, Jackson joined a lawsuit originally filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in August 2024, adding North Carolina to a multistate antitrust action in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The complaint named RealPage Inc. and six landlord companies — Greystar, Blackstone’s LivCor, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield, Pinnacle Property Management Services, Willow Bridge Property Company, and Cortland Management — that together manage more than 70,000 rental units in the state.1NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Sues Six Landlords for Illegally Raising North Carolinians’ Rents
The allegation: these landlords fed RealPage’s software their non-public rent prices, occupancy rates, and pricing strategies, and then used the algorithm’s daily recommendations to set rents higher than open competition would have produced. Jackson’s office estimated the arrangement affected about one-third of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in the Raleigh, Durham/Chapel Hill, and Charlotte metro areas.1NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Sues Six Landlords for Illegally Raising North Carolinians’ Rents The suit alleges violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.2Federal Register. United States of America et al. v. RealPage, Inc. et al.
The Cortland Settlement
Cortland was the first defendant to settle. Jackson and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the agreement on April 15, 2025. Cortland manages more than 5,000 units in North Carolina, mostly in the Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham areas, and roughly 74,700 units across 24 U.S. markets.3NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches Settlement With Landlord to Stop Using RealPage’s Unlawful Software4Cortland. Investors
The settlement is entirely injunctive. No monetary penalty was publicly disclosed. Under the agreement, Cortland must:
- Stop using non-public, competitively sensitive data from other landlords to set rents.
- Stop using third-party pricing software or algorithms unless supervised by a court-appointed monitor.
- Stop sharing its own non-public data, including rent prices and occupancy figures, with other property managers through platforms like RealPage.
- Refrain from using software that incorporates artificial rent floors or limits on price decreases.
- Cooperate with the states in the ongoing case against RealPage and the remaining landlord defendants.
Cortland also has to report its compliance to the attorneys general, and the states can inspect, enforce the terms in court, or extend the agreement’s duration.3NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches Settlement With Landlord to Stop Using RealPage’s Unlawful Software5Law Week Colorado. Real Estate Company Cortland Management Enters Settlement Agreement
The Greystar $7 Million Settlement
Seven months later, on November 20, 2025, Jackson announced a $7 million settlement with Greystar Management alongside a bipartisan coalition of eight other state attorneys general — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, and Tennessee. Greystar is the largest landlord among the original six defendants.6NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches $7 Million Settlement With Largest North Carolina Landlord Over AI Rent Setting7Illinois Attorney General. Attorney General Raoul Announces $7 Million Multi-State Settlement
The conduct terms track the Cortland deal. Greystar cannot use non-public data from other landlords to set rents, cannot attend RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords, and must submit to compliance monitoring by the participating attorneys general.8NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches $7 Million Settlement
The $7 million is split among the nine states; the file does not specify North Carolina’s share. What the file does say clearly: neither the Cortland nor the Greystar settlement includes direct refunds or compensation to individual tenants.8NCDOJ. Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches $7 Million Settlement
Who Is Still Being Sued
As of early 2026, the underlying case remains active against four landlord defendants — Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield, Pinnacle Property Management Services, and Willow Bridge Property Company — along with RealPage itself.9NAAG. United States and Plaintiff States v. RealPage
Two federal-level developments are moving in parallel. On November 24, 2025, the DOJ filed a proposed consent decree with RealPage that, if approved, would bar the company from using competitors’ non-public data to set rental prices in real time, limit its model training to data at least 12 months old, prohibit geographic pricing analysis more granular than the state level, remove software features that limit price decreases, and install a court-appointed monitor.10U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Requires RealPage End Sharing Competitively Sensitive Information On December 23, 2025, the DOJ reached a proposed settlement with LivCor, published for public comment in the Federal Register on January 21, 2026, that would bar LivCor from using revenue management software relying on competitively sensitive data.2Federal Register. United States of America et al. v. RealPage, Inc. et al.
How North Carolina Renters Actually Get Money Back
Compensation for tenants is running through a separate track: a private multidistrict class action in the Middle District of Tennessee, In re RealPage Inc. Rental Software Antitrust Litigation (II). In November 2025, the court granted preliminary approval to 26 settlements involving 27 defendants, totaling roughly $141.8 million. Greystar’s share of that class settlement is $50 million, Equity Residential’s is $56 million, and Camden Property Trust’s is $53 million.11Top Class Actions. Equity Residential to Pay $56M to Settle RealPage Rent Price-Fixing Class Action12Multifamily Dive. RealPage Class Action Lawsuit Settlement
The class generally covers anyone who signed a lease after October 18, 2018, at a property whose manager used RealPage software. The claims process had not yet opened as of preliminary approval; it starts once the court approves the notice and distribution plans.11Top Class Actions. Equity Residential to Pay $56M to Settle RealPage Rent Price-Fixing Class Action
If you rented from one of these landlords in that window, that class action is the route to a payment, not Jackson’s state settlements. Watch for a claim-filing notice from the settlement administrator once the court approves distribution.
What the Software Did, in Plain Terms
RealPage’s flagship product, YieldStar (later rebranded AI Revenue Management), is a centralized pricing engine. Landlords feed the system their internal rental data — actual rents, lease terms, occupancy — and receive daily price recommendations for individual units. The engine draws on aggregated data from competing landlords who also subscribe, giving each subscriber visibility into what rivals charge and how full their buildings are. According to ProPublica’s reporting, property managers adopted the software’s suggested prices roughly 90% of the time.13ProPublica. YieldStar Rent Increase — RealPage Rent
The algorithm also treats occupancy in a particular way: it calculates that charging higher rents on fewer occupied units can generate more total revenue than filling every apartment at a lower price. RealPage has disputed the antitrust characterization; spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock said the software is “purposely built to be legally compliant” and that its recommendations are used “less than half the time.”14Spectrum News. RealPage Cortland Landlord Software The DOJ estimates RealPage controls at least 80% of the market for commercial revenue management software.2Federal Register. United States of America et al. v. RealPage, Inc. et al.
That is what Jackson’s settlements bar the participating landlords from doing going forward: feeding non-public data into a shared algorithm and pricing from what comes back.