Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the FAIR Act on Monday, banning landlords from using algorithmic software that recommends rents based on competing landlords’ private, nonpublic data, a practice state officials say helped drive up housing costs through unlawful coordination. Sherrill said the problem is that these tools “put competing landlords on the same team against renters,” adding that the law is meant to stop landlords from “coordinating prices, moving in lockstep, and pushing rents higher and higher”.

The measure comes amid growing scrutiny of rent-setting platforms such as RealPage, which the article says has been sued by the U.S. Department of Justice and New Jersey over allegations that its software helped landlords coordinate rent prices in violation of antitrust laws. The Jersey Vindicator reports that the New Jersey Senate passed the FAIR Act on June 18 and the Assembly approved it on June 30, while the governor’s office said the Attorney General’s Office will create an online system for tenants and others to report alleged violations.

Supporters of the law argue that New Jersey’s housing shortage is still the main driver of high rents, but say the FAIR Act can stop additional price increases caused by algorithmic coordination. The law is not a blanket ban on all landlord software, it targets systems that collect competitors’ rental data, analyze it through an algorithm, and recommend prices or occupancy levels, making New Jersey’s move one of the strongest state-level actions yet against rent-setting software.

BANNED: New Jersey Signs FAIR Act Banning Algorithmic Rent-Setting Software That Uses Competitors’ Private Data, In Major New State Crackdown On Landlord Pricing Algorithms 🚫