ANALYSIS: Statehouses Nationwide Gunning For Algorithmic Cartels

Antitrust suits brought by the Justice Department, state attorneys general, and private plaintiffs against rental management software purveyor RealPage Inc. appear to have lit a fire under legislators nationwide. These lawsuits allege that landlords everywhere have colluded via software to set rents artificially high. State legislators have responded with bills proposing to ban algorithmic pricing in some form and a federal bill is pending, too.

The pending bills (at present count, in 16 different states and the US Senate) take several different approaches, but all of them recognize the potential of algorithmic pricing programs to serve as ...