Tenants have filed a class-action lawsuit against a real estate software firm and numerous large property owners and managers in southern and central Florida, alleging that the defendants engaged in a price-fixing scheme to drive up rents and company profits.

The federal lawsuit was filed Jan. 13 in the Southern District of Florida against the software firm RealPage as well as property managers such as Camden Property Trust and Lincoln Property Co. The lawsuit argues that RealPage’s widely used software platform results in coordinated price setting in the Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa regions.

“With the assurance that their competitors are respectively setting Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa rental prices using the same algorithm, each defendant property manager could allow a larger share of their units to remain vacant while maintaining higher rental prices across their properties,” the complaint states. “This increased their revenue at the expense of renters.”

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