Attorney General Jeff Jackson sued six landlords for allegedly working together illegally to raise rents for North Carolinians, according to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Justice.

What You Need To Know

  •  Attorney General Jeff Jackson is suing six landlords in North Carolina for allegedly working together to hike rent prices

  •  These six landlords own or manage over 70,000 units throughout the state, according to Jackson

  •  The landlords are using the software RealPage to exploit sensitive information and generate new pricing algorithms, Jackson alleges

The landlords include Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, Blackstone’s LivCor LLC, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield Inc and Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, Willow Bridge Property Company LLC and Cortland Management LLC.

Related: U.S. Justice Department accuses 6 major landlords of scheming to keep rents high

The release said these landlords are using RealPage, a property management software, to “set rents for approximately a third of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in the Raleigh, Durham/Chapel Hill, and Charlotte metro areas.”

"North Carolinians are struggling to afford their rent as it is – we won’t stand for landlords and real estate companies making the problem worse to line their own pockets,” Jackson said in the release. “I’m suing these landlords to make sure they play by the rules so North Carolinians can get fair prices for rent.”

In North Carolina, these six landlords own or manage over 70,000 units throughout the state, according to the release.

This lawsuit is a part of Jackson’s “ongoing bipartisan case against the software company RealPage,” the release said. The lawsuit alleges that RealPage is exploiting landlords’ sensitive information to generate a pricing algorithm to gain money at the expense of renters.

By communicating with RealPage and other landlords on non-public information, such as rent prices, occupancy and strategies for setting rent, these landlords are violating antitrust laws and setting higher prices.

The release said these tactics not only harm North Carolinians struggling to pay rent, but also landlords who are trying to follow the rules.

Jackson has filled the lawsuit alongside the U.S. Department of Justice and the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.