Federal agents raided a property management company operating in Arizona as part of an investigation into price-fixing rent, marking a distinct escalation in the renewed push to enforce consumer protection laws.
Cortland, an Atlanta-based property management company, joins nine other real estate conglomerates under investigation for creating a rental monopoly, resulting in rents across Arizona going up by more than 30% since 2022. The common thread between the 10 is RealPages, a co-defendant and consulting firm whose software they utilized to determine the maximum amount rent could be raised, then doing so in tandem in a manner Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has characterized as monopolistic.
“The conspiracy allegedly engaged in by RealPage and these landlords has harmed Arizonans and directly contributed to Arizona’s affordable housing crisis,” said Mayes. “This conspiracy stifled fair competition and essentially established a rental monopoly in our state’s two largest metro areas.”
Way too much cynicism. The current SCOTUS isn’t nearly as beholden to big money interests as many people love to pretend they are. Their recent upholding of funding for the CPB is a prime example of this.
…SCOTUS has been expanding corporate power since long before the current majority. This is a nearly 40 year long project and it transcends any nominal association of a justice as being liberal or conservative.
There’s no doubt that it has been accelerated as of late, but don’t kid yourself about who they serve
Also, that CFPB case would have wrecked the status quo of power and how government funding works. Not a subtle shift, or a quick jolt, but a fucking wrecking ball by making it so that programs that makeup nearly 2/3rds of the federal budget would have to be continually reauthorized e.g. Medicare, Social Security, etc.