RealPage, Inc., Rental Software (No. II)

The RealPage, Inc., Rental Software (No. II) MDL, centralized in the Middle District of Tennessee before Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw since April 2023, is one of the more closely watched dockets in current antitrust litigation: it addresses claims that RealPage's revenue-management software allowed competing landlords to effectively coordinate rents by pooling non-public pricing and supply data and using a shared algorithm to recommend pricing, rather than setting rents independently. The claimant pool in an algorithmic-pricing case like this is typically renters as a purchaser class, and the litigation proceeds against both RealPage as the software provider and the landlord entities alleged to have used it.

For a funder, this is a still-developing area of antitrust doctrine — algorithmic coordination theories are newer than conventional price-fixing law, and how courts treat information-sharing through a common software intermediary as the functional equivalent of an agreement among competitors is a live legal question with real bearing on claim value. That doctrinal novelty argues for careful, docket-specific underwriting rather than treating this claim like a conventional purchaser-class overcharge case.

With 13 actions currently consolidated here roughly three years into the docket's life, and given that this is explicitly a "No. II" docket alongside related RealPage litigation proceeding elsewhere, funders and firms should track how rulings in the related matter affect this one's legal theory and pace — coordinated defendants and overlapping legal issues across related dockets often mean that a significant ruling in one informs the other even though they remain procedurally distinct.

A law firm with a book of renter claims tied to RealPage-affected landlords, or with exposure across both this docket and its related companion litigation, is a candidate for portfolio-structured commercial claim funding under Criterica Capital's commercial litigation finance program, with pricing reflecting the doctrinal novelty of algorithmic-coordination theory alongside the usual claim-specific factors. There is no medical-lien component to this commercial claim. A separate structural read on how the algorithmic-coordination theory is proceeding is available through Criterica Intelligence.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.