Nearly a year after launching an investigation into the use of algorithmic pricing software for rental housing in Canada, the

Competition Bureau announced it was discontinuing the probe. However the agency said it “remains concerned” about the use of these tools.

The Bureau launched its civil inquiry in January after receiving complaints mainly related to concerns whether landlords could potentially collude on

rental prices by using revenue management software that may track competitors’ pricing information.

The agency said in a position statement that revenue management software products supplied by RealPage Canada Inc. and Yardi Canada Ltd., “have not been found to be sufficiently widespread in Canada as to substantially harm competition.”

A spokesperson for the agency said by law it cannot provide more details, beyond what was in the announcement.

The purpose of the Bureau’s civil investigation was to determine whether RealPage Canada and Yardi Canada abused a dominant position or engaged in anti-competitive behaviour that harmed Canadian

renters . This could mean raising rental prices or increasing vacancy or tenant turnover rates, among other issues.

The Bureau said it looked into whether the software generated pricing recommendations by collecting non-public, competitively sensitive information, used its pricing algorithms to artificially inflate

rents and incentivized landlords to comply with (or discouraged them to reject) these pricing recommendations.

RealPage, headquartered in Richardson, Tex., offers various revenue management tools that help landlords set prices for apartment units, including its most widely known legacy product,

YieldStar , as well as AI Revenue Management (AIRM) and Lease Rent Options (LRO). Yardi, headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif., with offices in Toronto, Saskatoon and Vancouver, offers a revenue management software called Revenue IQ.

In February 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed in California state court against Yardi and some Yardi customers who use Revenue IQ, but the court granted summary judgment that the software did not violate California’s antitrust and unfair competition laws.

“As a U.S. court recently concluded in rejecting claims of anticompetitive conduct, and consistent with the industry guidance issued by the Competition Bureau, Yardi’s software has never used, and by design cannot use, non-public competitor information to recommend pricing for any other client,” a spokesperson for Yardi said in an email.

The spokesperson said Yardi’s software uses clients’ own property data and publicly available housing market information to “help apartment communities make individual pricing decisions in accordance with their own business strategies.”

RealPage did not respond to requests for comment before publication of this story. Jennifer Bowcock, a spokesperson for RealPage, told the Financial Post in 2024 that RealPage’s presence in Canada is “fairly low” at a one per cent penetration rate and said its revenue management software is “purposely built to be legally compliant.”

Both companies’ software tools are offered in Canada, however the Bureau said its investigation found that landlords significantly reduced their use of these products since late 2024.

In August 2024, a civil antitrust lawsuit was filed by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) against RealPage and in December a

proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in Canada alleging multiple landlords and property managers were using Yieldstar to control rental prices.

RealPage said the DOJ terminated its criminal investigation in December, but it is unclear how this affected the DOJ’s civil lawsuit, which was last

amended in January, to sue six large U.S. landlords. The Bureau noted in its position statement that while evidence did not support anti-competitive collaboration through use of algorithmic pricing software in Canada’s rental markets, it “remains concerned” about the use of these tools and their potential to harm competition.

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It also provided guidance to landlords to ensure they are compliant with the Competition Act when using revenue management tools.

“Given the importance of this issue, the Bureau will continue to monitor the rental housing market and the use of algorithmic pricing software,” the Bureau said in its press release. “Should new and compelling evidence of conduct, agreements or arrangements, or harm to competition come to light, the Bureau will not hesitate to take appropriate action.”