A diary entry on algorithmic price fixing, a multi-state lawsuit, and one councilor’s refusal to pick only one fight
Monday, A Policy Fight I Did Not See Coming This Directly
Councilor Angelita Morillo has introduced rental software policy this year mirroring language from a recent multi-state lawsuit against Greystar Management Services, targeting the company’s use of pricing tools like RealPage that Oregon’s own attorney general describes as allowing landlords to coordinate rent increases rather than competing independently, and I want to say plainly that this is exactly the kind of specific, structural intervention I have been waiting for someone on this council to actually pursue rather than simply discuss.
Algorithmic rent coordination has been documented extensively at this point, software effectively allowing landlords across a market to synchronise pricing decisions in ways that would draw obvious antitrust scrutiny if humans coordinated the same information directly over a phone call, and seeing local policy actually target this specific mechanism, rather than simply general rent stabilisation language, feels like a genuinely sharper intervention than this council usually manages.
Monday Afternoon, A Quote That Stuck With Me
Morillo’s own framing, that she can focus on renter’s rights and building housing simultaneously rather than choosing between them, directly pushes back against a false choice this column has heard repeated constantly by more moderate council voices, and I found myself genuinely cheering reading that specific rebuttal.
Tuesday, A Note On Watching This Policy’s Actual Progress
I intend to track this specific piece of legislation considerably more closely than my usual council coverage, given how directly it targets a mechanism I have watched drive rent increases in my own building over recent years.
A Fight Worth Genuine Optimism, Cautiously
Whatever this policy’s eventual fate through committee and full council votes, I am allowing myself real, if cautious, hope that this represents the kind of specific structural fight this council needs considerably more of.
I have also started reading up on how comparable rental software litigation has proceeded in other states adopting similar language, hoping to get a realistic sense of how quickly this kind of policy typically moves from introduction to actual enforceable ordinance.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/
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