"The legislation prohibits property owners or managers from using software that relies on private information to set rents, what lawmakers say amounts to price-fixing and artificially inflates the cost of housing. Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign a slate of housing-related bills into law on Thursday, including legislation that bans landlords from using certain algorithm-based software to set rents-what critics say amounts to collusion and price-fixing-and another aimed at tackling racial bias in home appraisals."
"The bill's sponsors, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, argued in a City and State op-ed in June that the use of real estate management software like RealPage-the target of a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit under the Biden administration in 2024-allows landlords to access propriety information, like lease renewal rates, in order to inflate rents and maximize profits."
""If landlords were meeting in person to discuss their prices, make changes based on what they learned from each other, and agree on a set of prices that most benefits them, then we would call that what it is, price fixing, and it would be illegal under both federal and state law," the lawmakers wrote at the time. "With today's [bill] signing, New York's antitrust laws have been updated to reflect the deleterious impact that algorithms can have on tenants and the real estate market," Rosenthal said in a statement Thursday."
Governor Kathy Hochul will sign legislation banning property owners and managers from using algorithmic software that relies on private tenant or market information to set rents. The measure updates New York antitrust law to target algorithm-driven price-setting intended to curb collusion, price-fixing, and artificially inflated housing costs. The package also includes a bill aimed at tackling racial bias in home appraisals. Real estate management platforms such as RealPage face federal antitrust scrutiny, and California plus several cities have enacted similar limits. The governor has until the end of the year to act on remaining bills.
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