Out of court settlement is the opposite of that due to lack of precedent setting. Everytime you hear about a settlement, you should be thinking "rich bastards paying their way out of future accountability".

Is it so sure? $7 million seems like a pittance. The anticompetitive behavior pushes up rents for everybody, and raises the price of houses to boot. The cost to consumers is measured in the billions.

It may not be possible to trace every dollar of the damage that they did, but such obvious misbehavior with severe consequences merits punitive fines, not just paying back the money they took in illegally.