The U.S. Justice Department is suing several large landlords for allegedly coordinating to keep Americans’ rents high by using both an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information with their competitors to boost profits.

The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it filed an amended complaint in a lawsuit against six of the country’s largest landlords for participating in algorithmic pricing schemes that have harmed

The large landlords allegedly coordinated to keep Americans’ rents high by using both an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information with their competitors to boost profits.

The country's biggest apartment landlords have been added to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice last year — which is considered "one of the most sweeping legal actions ever taken by the federal government against a private company in the rental-housing industry,