"The policy, which is co-sponsored by Councilors Mitch Green and Tiffany Koyama Lane, is intended to address a tool that allows large building owners to share private data through software that collectively sets rent prices. Antitrust experts and tenant advocates say the property management software companies-and the landlords that contract with them-are skirting federal price-fixing law by using the algorithmic tool. They say the software enables landlords to essentially collude with one another to keep rents artificially high."
"Oregon and eight other states jointly filed litigation targeting the company's use of software like RealPage, which Oregon's attorney general says allows landlords to "coordinate rent increases rather than competing independently." The proposed city ordinance has been supported by renters advocates, who say the policy is a part of addressing high rents in Portland, helping the city address rising homelessness and housing insecurity."
Portland is advancing an ordinance to ban the sale or use of algorithmic rental price‑fixing software after earlier delays. The ordinance targets tools that let large building owners share private data and collectively set rent prices, which experts and advocates say facilitate collusion and skirt federal price‑fixing law. The policy mirrors language in multi‑state litigation against property managers and software like RealPage, and comes as Oregon pursues a proposed settlement over illegal rental price fixing. The proposal is supported by renters advocates as a way to address high rents and housing insecurity and opposed by real estate developers.
Read at Portland Mercury
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