Landlords Are Using AI to Raise Rentsâand Cities Are Starting to Push Back

Many landlords now use a single company's software that uses an algorithm based on proprietary lease information to help set rent prices.

Federal prosecutors say the practice amounts to âan unlawful information-sharing scheme, and some lawmakers throughout California are moving to curb it.

San Diego's city council president is the latest to do so, proposing a ban that would prevent local apartment owners from using the pricing service.

The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage in August .

It alleges the company engaged in an âunlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing.

The California Justice Department contends RealPage artificially inflated prices to keep them above a certain minimum level.

The attorneys general of eight states, including California , joined the Justice Departmentâs antitrust suit.

Theyâve considered moving to Denver . âAll the extras pretty much have to go,â said Pickens . âI mean, we love San Diego , but itâs getting hard to live here.â âMy wife is an attorney and I served in the Navy for 10 years and now work at Qualcomm ,â he said. âWhy are we struggling? Why are we struggling?â This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license..