Bill > A4916

Introduced Session

This bill prohibits the use and sale of algorithmic devices for setting rent price or occupancy of residential dwelling units. In recent years, a number of new software programs, often referred to as "algorithmic devices," have threatened to destabilize rental housing markets in cities nationwide, including in New Jersey. These programs enable landlords to indirectly coordinate with one another through the sharing of non-public competitively sensitive data in order to artificially inflate rents and vacancy rates for rental housing. Participating landlords provide vast amounts of proprietary data to the programs, which in turn set or provide recommendations for rent and occupancy rates. More and more landlords in the United States now pool their data and pricing decisions using such software. This software has contributed to double-digit rent increases, higher vacancy rates, and higher rates of eviction, and has distorted markets so that rents and vacancy rates have increased in tandem. Often used by large corporate landlords, the software fuels the consolidation of corporate and private equity ownership of rental housing, at the expense of landlords large and small who compete in the market without use of this software. Landlords using these tools are not appropriately engaging in the market and the companies developing and selling these tools to landlords are contributing to these problems. Numerous antitrust lawsuits have been filed against certain of these companies, including RealPage, Inc. and Yardi Systems, Inc. The lawsuits allege that these companies are enabling and participating in a scheme of unlawful price fixing. These include lawsuits filed by the District of Columbia Attorney General and the Arizona Attorney General and more than 20 federal private class action lawsuits nationwide that have been consolidated in the federal court in the Middle District of Tennessee. This bill does not restrict the development, sale, or use of software to help landlords manage units based on internal data or with use of publically available data. Nor does it regulate the amount of rent that a landlord may charge. This bill prohibits the sale, license, and use of an algorithmic device that sets, recommends, or advises on rents or occupancy rates that may be achieved for residential dwelling units in the State. The bill provides that the Attorney General may file a civil action for a violation for damages, injunctive relief, restitution or return of illegal profits, civil penalties of up to $1000 per violation, or some combination. A court is required to award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the Attorney General if the Attorney General is the prevailing party in such a civil action. The bill defines "algorithmic devices" and "non-public competitor data" for the purposes of the "New Jersey Antitrust Act."

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Margie Donlon (D)*,  Luanne Peterpaul (D)*,  Carmen Morales (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Housing Committee (on 10/17/2024)

Official Document