Pinnacle would stop using rivals’ rent data. A judge has not signed it.

Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC manages apartments. On Friday, Sept. 4, the Justice Department asked a federal court in North Carolina to lock in a deal over how the company sets rent.

The department says Pinnacle used competitors’ private rental data, including through RealPage software, to coordinate prices. Press release 26-1026 called it a case against “algorithmic coordination, the use of competitors’ competitively sensitive data, and other anticompetitive practices in rental markets.”

The filing is a proposed consent decree. It is not a final judgment.

If a judge signs it, Pinnacle could not use an algorithm that prices apartments off rivals’ sensitive data, or that builds in certain anticompetitive features. It could not share that data with other landlords. It would have to take a court-appointed monitor if it used a third-party pricing tool that was not certified under the decree. It could not sit in RealPage-hosted meetings of competing landlords. It would have to help the United States against other defendants.

The same case already reached settlements with RealPage Inc. and four other large landlords: Cortland Management LLC, Greystar Management Services LLC, LivCor LLC, and Willow Bridge Property Company LLC.

“As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register.” The public then has 60 days to write in. “At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.” The court has not entered final judgment.