Spokane has joined the growing list of cities across the country to ban the use of algorithmic software that landlords have allegedly used to coordinate rent increases, which some Spokane City Council members and prosecutors across the country have likened to cartel-like behavior.
Seattle approved a similar ban in July, joining other major cities like San Francisco, Philadelphia and Minneapolis amid mounting concerns and lawsuits alleging that artificial intelligence algorithms are used by groups of landlords to raise rents without fear of being undercut by their competitors.
It’s not the use of algorithms that is at issue, nor are they banned outright under Spokane’s new law. Instead, it is the use of proprietary, nonpublic data across the tech company’s clientele to recommend price hikes higher than landlords would make in the free market that critics argue violates antitrust laws…