San Francisco Bans Rent Fixing Software

San Francisco moved ahead with a ban on rent-setting software that critics say “facilitates illegal collusion by allowing landlords to share normally private data on pricing and occupancy rates.”

As Keith Menconi explains in the San Francisco Examiner, the city became the first jurisdiction to ban the sale and use of such software by landlords. “The measure also allows both renters and tenants’ rights nonprofits to sue over violations,” Menconi adds.

One software developer, RealPage, is being sued in multiple jurisdictions. “The lawsuits alleged that RealPage’s software, sold under the brand name AI Revenue Management, makes rental-price recommendations based on a vast pool of proprietary industry data collected from landlords that use the technology, allowing them to indirectly coordinate their decisions and, in effect, act as a price-fixing cartel.” 

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who authored the bill passed unanimously by the Board, says many of San Francisco’s largest landlords are RealPage clients. RealPage faces additional accusations that its software helps landlords maintain artificially high vacancy rates and impacts the broader rental market.