The Justice Department is thrusting the largest rental property managers into the spotlight as it expands a price-fixing lawsuit alleging widespread collusion in the housing rental market.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing six of the country's biggest landlords for allegedly participating in a collective pricing scheme to gouge rent.

High rent prices in D.C. have long frustrated residents in the District. “When I was looking at prices, I said, ‘Can you write down the prices of the units we saw?’ And they said no because the prices change every day,

Attorney General William Tong joined the US Department of Justice and attorneys general from nine other states in a lawsuit this week against six of the nation’s largest landlords over their use of algorithmic pricing software to set their rental rates.

The Department of Justice alleges several property management companies colluded to inflate rents using algorithmic software, harming millions of renters in Houston and across the country.

The Justice Department has filed an amended complaint against six property management firms, alleging an anticompetitive pricing scheme in the rental market.

The DOH had sued property management software company RealPage of letting landlords collude by sharing their pricing information with the company's software, which then recommends rent prices.

(Reuters) -Cushman & Wakefield was among six large landlords sued by the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged anticompetitive practices in housing rental markets on Tuesday, expanding the DOJ's first case alleging algorithmic collusion.