Across the country, landlords are using an algorithm to determine your rent—New Jersey just joined a handful of states in banning the practice.
Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent (FAIR) Act into law this week, making New Jersey the fourth state in the country to explicitly regulate rent-setting algorithms.
The law targets software that lets landlords coordinate rental prices and occupancy levels across properties—effectively allowing competitors to set prices together instead of against each other. “Landlords, who should be competing to provide the best price to renters, are instead colluding to drive prices up through so called ‘algorithmic pricing,'” Sherrill said. “That stops now.”
How It Works
Instead of each landlord independently deciding what to charge, algorithmic pricing tools pool data from multiple landlords—sometimes direct competitors in the same market—and recommend rents designed to maximize revenue across an entire pool of properties. Critics argue that it functions the same way as old-fashioned price-fixing—but automated. The FAIR Act makes using that kind of software to coordinate pricing illegal in New Jersey.
The law comes amid growing national scrutiny of these tools. Housing advocates, economists, and antitrust regulators across the country have raised concerns that algorithmic pricing software has contributed to rent increases in tight housing markets like the Garden State. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said her office is already fighting algorithmic collusion in court. “We are proud to be leading the fight in court against algorithmic collusion by landlords and tech companies,” Davenport said. “Today’s legislation provides a much-needed systemic solution for the problem.”
Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz put a number on the impact: in some cases, she said, renters have paid hundreds of dollars more per year because of these artificial markups.
Labor and housing groups largely cheered the signing. Ana Maria Hill of 32BJ SEIU called it a tool that “gives families the power to end illegal rent increases that tear apart communities.” Senator Brian Stack was more pointed about who the law actually targets: “These are not your neighborhood landlords—they are large corporations making money hand over fist and forcing people out of their communities.”
The FAIR Act is part of a broader affordability push by the Sherrill administration, which has also focused on increasing housing production, expanding transit-oriented development, and coordinating state agencies through the Housing Governing Council to address New Jersey’s housing shortage.
For renters, the practical upside is enforcement: the law creates clear avenues to report violations and seek relief if a landlord is found using banned algorithmic pricing tools.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.