A federal judge has blocked New York State from enforcing a first-of-its-kind law that banned landlords and real estate professionals from using algorithmic pricing tools to set residential rents, handing a significant legal win to software maker RealPage. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni issued a preliminary injunction in RealPage's favor, finding that the company was marginally likely to prove the law unconstitutional. The law had been on hold while Caproni considered the case.
As reported by kansascity.com, RealPage argued the statute violated its First Amendment free speech rights by restricting how its software's pricing recommendations could be used. Caproni wrote that the statute prohibits normal commercial conduct just because it is facilitated by software, adding that considering competitors' prices when pricing one's own product is not untoward. The law, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul, was the first statewide ban of its kind in the country, and according to the Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS, the measure amended the state's Donnelly Act under General Business Law § 340-B to make certain uses of software a per se antitrust violation when they facilitate an agreement or perform a coordinating function involving data from multiple owners or managers.
Sponsor and Attorney General Push Back
Then-state senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is now Manhattan borough president, sponsored the law and said it would help New York crack down on practices that artificially inflated rents and made living in the state unaffordable for many. New York Attorney General Letitia James' office defended the statute in court, arguing the state could regulate anticompetitive conduct by technology companies that wreaked havoc on the housing rental market, and that the law regulated conduct rather than protected speech. James' office declined to comment on the ruling Wednesday, and Hoylman-Sigal's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A RealPage spokesperson had no immediate comment on the ruling either.
RealPage, based in Richardson, Texas, and owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, filed its lawsuit against New York just two days after reaching a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in which it agreed to restrict its algorithmic software from using non-public competitor data to generate price recommendations. That federal settlement, reached in November 2025, required operational guardrails on the company's use of such data without imposing financial penalties, while landlord co-defendants including Pinnacle and Willow Bridge reached their own separate consent decrees, according to Multifamily Dive. Thoma Bravo completed its roughly $10.2 billion all-cash acquisition of RealPage in April 2021, taking the previously publicly traded firm private, per Nasdaq.
A Bigger Legal Fight Nationwide
New York's law was never operating in isolation. San Francisco became the first U.S. municipality to ban rent-setting software under its Rent Ordinance in October 2024, a move that set off a wave of similar local bans in cities including Philadelphia, Jersey City, San Diego, Minneapolis, Providence, and Portland, Oregon, according to the city's own sf.gov materials. Yet enforcement has proven elusive even where these bans exist: San Francisco's ordinance carries civil penalties of up to $1,000 per offense, but city officials had not filed a single civil lawsuit against a landlord under the law as of late August, even as median two-bedroom rents in the city hit record highs above $6,000, The Real Deal reported.
California has taken its own legislative swing at the issue. The state has amended its Cartwright Act, according to The Innovation Attorney. RealPage has also fought state bans on First Amendment grounds, per Wikipedia.
Settlements Piling Up Despite the Injunction
Even as it wins in court on free-speech grounds, RealPage and the property managers who used its tools have faced enormous financial exposure elsewhere. In a separate multidistrict class action in federal court in Tennessee, 37 property management co-defendants agreed to a $359.925 million settlement fund, while litigation against RealPage itself and other non-settling defendants remains ongoing, according to a PR Newswire release. Hoodline has previously reported on who qualifies for that payout.
Nine state attorneys general also secured a $7 million settlement with Greystar Management Services in November 2025 over allegations its use of RealPage software artificially inflated rents across multiple markets, per Multifamily Dive. And just weeks ago, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb finalized a $9.3 million settlement with landlords JBG Smith and MAA over similar algorithmic price-fixing claims tied to RealPage software, a deal Hoodline covered in detail.
The tension at the heart of all this litigation, as Forbes has noted, is whether state and local regulations restrict commercial conduct such as collusive price coordination, or whether they instead violate First Amendment protections on software recommendations drawn from market data. Caproni's injunction marks a major setback for state lawmakers pursuing bans like New York's under statutes such as the Donnelly Act, even as federal antitrust enforcement and private class-action litigation continue to push RealPage and major property managers toward settlements and operational changes nationwide.
