Class-Action Suit Accuses Data Providers and Brokerages of Rent Collusion
FitFactariDC LLC filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on June 12 against CoStar Group, CBRE, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, and Newmark. The suit alleges a hub-and-spoke price-fixing conspiracy in violation of the Sherman Act, claiming CoStar collected and redistributed sensitive lease information while the five brokerages submitted their data to gain access to competitors’ figures. FitFactariDC, a commercial tenant that signed an office lease in Denver brokered by one of the defendants, claims it paid artificially inflated effective rents as a result of the alleged information sharing. The complaint states that defendants used near-real-time visibility into competitors’ lease terms to align asking rents, reduce concessions, and resist tenant negotiations.
CoStar General Counsel Gene Boxer called the complaint “slapdash” and lacking in facts, arguing that transparent market data improves market efficiency and benefits all participants, including tenants. Arlington, Virginia-based CoStar has gathered and protected its market data since 1987 and considers it an essential tool used by brokerages, landlords, property owners, investors, and tenants. Devin Freedman of Freedman Normand Friedland LLP, the firm representing FitFactariDC, said the complaint shows how CoStar gave competing brokerages access to each other’s private deals, resulting in less competition and higher rents. CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, and Newmark did not respond to requests for comment, while Colliers declined to comment.
The lawsuit challenges the operating framework for much of commercial real estate, where CoStar serves as a primary source of market intelligence. The case echoes antitrust charges against Texas-based RealPage, which settled with the federal government late last year and agreed to restrictions on how it suggests rents and trains its AI models. CoStar faces a separate class-action lawsuit filed in April by a boutique brokerage alleging monopolization of the online CRE listing space, and Crexi is suing CoStar over claims of an illegal data monopoly in a case the Supreme Court allowed to proceed in March.
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