Landlord use of AI to set rent rates has spawned a wave of new laws and litigation. Critics urge that use of AI products by companies like Yardi Systems, Inc. and RealPage, Inc. are nothing short of high-tech collusion to fix prices.
The American Economic Liberties Project (“AELP”), launched in 2020, is a non-profit and non-partisan organization devoted to “translate the intellectual victories of the anti-monopoly movement into momentum towards concrete, wide-ranging policy changes that begin to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power.”
According to court documents filed by RealPage, AELP “began to peddle the groundless claim, based in large measure on demonstrably false factual assertions, that rising rents across the country were caused not by insufficient housing supply, but instead by software tools offered by services like RealPage.”
In July 2024 San Francisco banned algorithmic rental price setting. Other cities in California, Washington, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and around the county followed and passed similar legislation banning or limited the use of algorithmic rental price setting.
The AI rental companies have fought back, sometimes successfully.
RealPage sued the City of Berkeley claiming that its ban on “coordinated pricing algorithm” software, a law targeting apps like those sold by Yardi and RealPage, is an unconstitutional ban on free speech. RealPage in its complaint filed in the US District Court in California argues that rent increase are a function of supply and demand, and denies that its software app facilitates price-fixing.
In response, the City of Berkeley paused implementation of the pricing algorithm ban until March 1, 2006. A settlement may be forthcoming. According to a Joint Status Report signed by both parties and filed with the court November 26, 2025, the parties “are making substantial progress toward a final resolution in the form of amendments to the Ordinance, which they expect will be finalized in the coming weeks.” The parties are to file another status report by January 15, 2026.
RealPage’s competitor Yardi successfully argued in California state court that its software does not share nonpublic information between different landlords, and there is no agreement, neither explicitly nor implicitly, between competitors to set prices through use of its software.
On October 20, 2025, the court dismissed the case against Yardi after it disclosed its source code and the plaintiffs could not refute Yardi’s expert who opined that the software does not illegally share information between competitors nor require any agreement to set prices.
Just a month later, on November 24, Yardi filed a motion for summary judgment in an anti-trust case brough against it federal district court in Seattle. In its summary judgment motion Yardi quotes the California court’s order, “The undisputed evidence is that no one is agreeing or cooperating with the sharing of commercially sensitive rental prices in order to get price recommendations. The owners/managers are not giving anything to their competitors through Yardi, and they are not getting a price recommendation that is based on pricing data provided to Yardi by their competitors.”
Yardi’s summary judgment motion in Seattle is still pending at the time of this writing.
In August 2024 the federal government and ten state governments filed and anti-trust suit against RealPage and several large landlord companies. A proposed settlement was reached and filed with the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina November 24, 2025.
Under the settlement RealPage agrees to restrictions on the functionality of its software. The court will appoint a formal monitor to ensure compliance with the terms of the settlement. RealPage agrees to cooperate with and bear the cost of the court-appointed monitor.
At a time when both affordability and the use of artificial intelligence technology are at the forefront continued legislation and litigation concerning the use of artificial intelligence algorithms in setting rent prices can be expected.