AG Jeff Jackson announces $7 million settlement with NC’s largest landlord over AI rent-setting

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) —  North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson says his office has reached a $7 million settlement with Greystar Management LLC, the state’s largest landlord, over allegations the company used artificial intelligence software to illegally inflate rent prices.

Jackson announced Thursday that he and eight other attorneys general reached the agreement with Greystar, which manages more than 25,000 rental units across North Carolina. Jackson first sued Greystar and several other landlords in January, accusing them of working together and using RealPage’s AI-driven pricing software to set higher rents than the market would normally allow.

“This settlement means that more than 25,000 renters in North Carolina are going to be charged fairer prices for rent at a time when housing costs are overwhelming,” Jackson said in a statement. “Companies can’t use new technology, like AI, to break the law and hurt customers. If they try, we’ll take them to court.”

Under the settlement, Greystar will no longer:

• Use non-public or competitively sensitive data from other landlords to develop pricing models.
• Use third-party software or algorithms to price apartments unless it is done under the supervision of a court-appointed monitor.
• Share or use sensitive rental information from competitors to set or recommend rent prices.
• Attend or participate in RealPage-hosted meetings with competing landlords.

Greystar will also be required to report to the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office on its compliance, and the Attorney General may conduct inspections or take the company back to court if necessary.

The lawsuit against the remaining defendants, four other major landlords and RealPage, is still ongoing. Jackson has accused RealPage of using landlords’ confidential data to create pricing algorithms that artificially raised rent statewide. According to the complaint, the participating landlords collectively own or manage more than 70,000 rental units in North Carolina.

Jackson has recently increased scrutiny on the use of artificial intelligence in housing and consumer markets. Last week, he and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown launched a bipartisan national AI task force focused on developing safeguards against AI-related harms.