Kentucky pushed back against several landlords' bid to escape an antitrust suit naming them alongside property management software company RealPage Inc., arguing in federal court that it provided direct evidence supporting its allegation of a conspiracy between the parties.

The state's opposition comes amid a July suit alleging RealPage and individual landlords, including Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, fixed rents via a "hub-and-spoke" conspiracy, with the help of RealPage software.

Kentucky argued Friday that its suit provided sufficient evidence, citing a litany of statements made by RealPage directly to customers promising to leverage competitors' data, including rent prices, lease terms and occupancy rates, to maximize rent increases.

RealPage "stated that it 'helps curb [landlords'] instincts to respond to downmarket conditions by either dramatically lowering price or by holding price when they are losing velocity and/or occupancy,' and an executive adds that, once landlords use RealPage, they would 'likely move in unison versus against each other,'" Kentucky's Friday filing said.

RealPage revenue management software's "sold-out" mode allowed the software to remove certain units from the available inventory. And the software provider was able to enforce landlord compliance with the policy, preventing landlords from offering concessions and adding hurdles for landlords who chose not to accept the software's pricing recommendations, Kentucky added.

The state's complaint also included direct quotes from landlords admitting to the conspiracy, including one landlord's comment that RealPage allowed it to "eliminate the guessing game" on rent and another landlord defendant's comment that RealPage allowed it to "test the top of the market," Kentucky said Friday.

Kentucky noted that its complaint also alleges circumstantial evidence of a conspiracy.

The alleged widespread adoption of RealPage's revenue management software services, parties' agreement to share nonpublic and competitively sensitive information and the corresponding adoption of new pricing policies and strategies counter to traditional pricing methods amount to circumstantial evidence, the state said.

"Moreover, defendant landlords moved away from maximizing occupancy rates and focused instead on maximizing rental prices by raising prices and keeping more units unoccupied," Kentucky said. "Defendants stopped following basic market logic; when demand decreased, defendant landlords used RealPage products to prevent any reduction in prices."

In a September motion to dismiss, the landlord defendants insisted Kentucky's complaint did not provide plausible evidence of a hub-and-spoke conspiracy.

"Mere use of the same revenue management software by property managers cannot establish a conspiracy, particularly where, as here, the complaint is devoid of facts about any customer defendant that tend to exclude the possibility each acted independently," the landlords said. "Nor does the complaint allege that any customer defendant formed any agreement with RealPage that restrained its freedom to set its rents as it saw fit."

Also in its Friday filing, Kentucky insisted that many of the landlords' claims mimic those made by landlord and property management defendants in similar multidistrict litigation against RealPage in Tennessee. A Tennessee federal judge rejected those claims in December 2023.

Counsel for the landlord defendants and a representative for the Kentucky Attorney General's Office did not return a request for comment.

Kentucky is represented by Chris Lewis, Philip R. Heleringer and John M. Ghaelian of the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General and Adam J. Levitt, Daniel R. Ferri, Gregory S. Asciolla, Carrie Syme, Jonathan S. Crevier, Noah L. Cozad and Anna C. Skinner of DiCello Levitt.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. and Mid-America Apartments LP are represented by Britt M. Miller, Daniel T. Fenske and Rachel J. Lamorte of Mayer Brown LLP and Thad M. Barnes of Stites & Harbison PLLC.

Independence Realty Trust Inc. is represented by John J. Sullivan, Thomas Ingalls, Robert S. Clark and Nathan J. Larkin of Cozen O'Connor PC.

Willow Bridge Property Co. LLC is represented by Gregory J. Casas, Emily W. Collins and Becky L. Caruso of DLA Piper LLP and Kristeena L. Johnson and J. Mac McClure of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.

BH Management Services LLC is represented by Ian Simmons and Patrick J. Jones of O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Robert Kennedy McBride of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.

Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC is represented by Karen Hoffman Lent, Boris Bershteyn, Evan Kreiner and Sam Auld of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and Donald J. Kelly and Brandon A. Girdley of Wyatt Tarrant & Combs LLP.

RealPage Inc. is represented by Ben A. Sherwood, Daniel Glen Swanson, Jay P. Srinivasan, Michael J. Perry, S. Christopher Whittaker and Stephen Weissman of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

The case is Coleman v. RealPage Inc. et al., case number 2:25-cv-00093, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.