September 30, 2026
A New Jersey federal judge has ruled that the state can renew antitrust claims against AvalonBay Communities Inc. in a suit alleging that the real estate investment trust and multiple landlords used RealPage Inc.’s revenue management software to fix rents.
In her Tuesday order, U.S. District Judge Madeline C. Arleo granted the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs leave to file an amended complaint. The judge also denied as moot AvalonBay’s bid to reconsider the portion of her March ruling that preserved the state’s Consumer Fraud Act claim alleging unconscionable commercial practices.
Judge Arleo previously found that New Jersey had not sufficiently alleged that AvalonBay used RealPage’s software to engage in rent price-fixing.
“This was based on AvalonBay’s unique contractual arrangement with RealPage that prevents RealPage from sharing AvalonBay’s confidential data with other landlords or incorporating other landlords’ confidential data into the price recommendations RealPage provides to AvalonBay,” the judge explained.
New Jersey argued that AvalonBay got around its RealPage contract restrictions with tactics such as holding meetings with other landlords in order to share confidential business information, but the judge rejected this argument, in part, because the state failed to include all the details of the REIT’s alleged scheming in its initial suit.
The state’s proposed amended complaint includes additional allegations about AvalonBay circumventing its contractual restrictions, Judge Arleo said. These changes mean the state should be allowed to refile its antitrust claims, the judge said.
“Plaintiffs’ new allegations regarding AvalonBay’s involvement in the asserted price-fixing conspiracy address the specific pleading deficiencies the court identified in its opinion and make AvalonBay’s involvement in this scheme plausible,” the judge said.
Judge Arleo said the new version of the suit, among other things, unambiguously claims “that AvalonBay directly engaged in the exchange of confidential data with other defendant landlords.”
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The state is represented by Brian F. McDonough, David Reichenberg, Jesse J. Sierant, Laura E. Sedlak, Monisha A. Kumar, Samuel T. Eglow and Douglas T. Post of the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and Brent W. Johnson, Emmy L. Levens, Amanda K. Chuzi, Aaron J. Marks and Robert A. Braun of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll LLP.