The rent is too high in San Diego, but corporate landlords collaborating in order to set prices algorithmically — sending costs soaring well beyond market pressures — is now a thing of the past.
The San Diego City Council passed the Prohibition of Anti-Competitive Automated Rent Price-Fixing Ordinance in its final reading on Tuesday, which bans the use, sale, and licensing of software that enables corporate landlords to coordinate rent prices using nonpublic competitor data.
Algorithmic price-fixing is an increasingly common practice, currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and multiple states…