Justice Department antitrust lawyers have filed a proposed settlement with Willow Bridge Property Company LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, seeking to resolve claims that the Dallas-based property manager used RealPage Inc. software and competitor data in an alleged rent-setting scheme.
The July 6 filing sits within United States et al. v. RealPage et al., the broader civil antitrust action brought by the Antitrust Division over revenue management tools used in rental housing.
The Competitive Impact Statement says the United States filed its original complaint against RealPage on August 23, 2024, and amended it on January 7, 2025 to add Willow Bridge and five other property management companies as defendants.
It alleges Willow Bridge licensed RealPage’s AI Revenue Management, known as AIRM, and YieldStar products, and that RealPage used competitively sensitive nonpublic information from landlords to influence rental prices and recommendations.
Willow Bridge, headquartered in Dallas, manages more than 240,000 units in the United States, making the settlement significant for competition lawyers, property sector clients and legal teams advising on pricing tools.
The Justice Department said the proposed settlement builds on settlements in the same enforcement action involving RealPage, Cortland Management LLC, Greystar Management Services LLC and LivCor LLC, widening the compliance signal for landlords, software vendors and companies using shared data to support pricing decisions.
The proposed Final Judgment would restrict Willow Bridge from using proprietary or third-party revenue management products that draw on external nonpublic data to generate rental prices, pool information across different property owners, or use pricing models trained on nonpublic competitor data.
It also bars certain agreements with other property owners or property managers to use a particular revenue management product.
The Stipulation and Order records DLA Piper LLP (US) as counsel for Willow Bridge, with Eric Steven Goodheart, Gregory J. Casas, Emily W. Collins, Claire Smith and Becky L. Caruso appearing on the filing. Henry C. Su, David A. Geiger, Danielle G. Hauck and Kris A. Perez Hicks signed for the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, Technology and Digital Platforms Section.
Under the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act, often called the Tunney Act, the proposed Final Judgment and Competitive Impact Statement must be published in the Federal Register, with a 60-day comment period before the court may enter final judgment if it finds the settlement is in the public interest.
The filing gives competition and technology lawyers a concrete marker for how the Justice Department may treat pricing software when competitor data feeds the model. RealPage, Willow Bridge and the Antitrust Division are now tied to a compliance question that reaches beyond residential rentals: whether a business can show that its algorithmic pricing tools are trained and operated without nonpublic rival data.
In-house counsel using algorithmic decision tools should review vendor contracts, model-training records, competitor-contact controls, audit rights and software certifications before a regulator characterises the tool as evidence of coordinated conduct.
Solicitors and barristers advising property, technology and private equity clients should expect questions on whether Sherman Act compliance policies cover RealPage-style pricing algorithms, data provenance, employee attestations and board-level oversight.
The next stage will test how far U.S. antitrust settlements can shape AI governance standards beyond housing and into other markets where pricing tools depend on sensitive third-party data.