Oct 7 (Reuters) - Mortgage software provider Optimal

Blue and nearly 30 major lenders including Rocket Mortgage,

CrossCountry Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage have been

accused in a federal lawsuit of conspiring to inflate

residential mortgage fees for millions of U.S. homebuyers.

The proposed class action was filed on Monday in Nashville,

Tennessee, by homeowners in Tennessee, Minnesota, Delaware and

Rhode Island who claim the lenders used Optimal Blue's pricing

software to share non-public data on interest rates and fees,

allowing them to coordinate pricing in violation of federal

antitrust law.

The lawsuit claims the data-sharing scheme drove up mortgage

costs nationwide and "transformed the American dream of

homeownership into a financial nightmare."

Optimal Blue declined to comment, as did defendants United

Wholesale Mortgage, Bank of America ( BAC ) and Wells Fargo

. Defendants including Rocket Mortgage,

CrossCountry Mortgage and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) did not

immediately respond to requests for comment.

Attorney Robin van der Meulen, representing the homeowner

plaintiffs, in a statement said they looked forward to "holding

accountable unfair competitors and unfair competition, no matter

the mechanism."

The lawsuit describes Plano, Texas-based Optimal Blue as

"the dominant market intelligence and pricing software provider

in the U.S. mortgage industry."

Lenders pay for subscriptions to access its business

analytics tools, which allegedly have allowed them to monitor

competitors' pricing and adjust their own rates.

The lawsuit said Optimal Blue's tools include "daily,

non-public, real-time, loan-level data dissected at the local

level" and are used to price more than one-third of all

mortgages nationwide.

The proposed class includes borrowers nationwide who

obtained residential mortgages priced using Optimal Blue's tools

between October 2021 and the present.

The plaintiffs said they are seeking unspecified monetary

damages and a court order to stop the alleged price-fixing

scheme involving Optimal Blue and the mortgage lenders.

The case is Angel D. Mendez et al v. Optimal Blue LLC et al,

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, No.

3:25-cv-01140.

For plaintiffs: Robin van der Meulen, Carmen Medici and

Patrick McGahan of Scott + Scott Attorneys at Law, and Brian

Clark of Lockridge Grindal Nauen

For defendants: No appearances yet

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