Washington, D.C. — Amid growing awareness that third-party rent-setting algorithms are a serious driver of the housing affordability crisis, the American Economic Liberties Project officially announced the launch of its “End Rental Price-Fixing” campaign–which supported more than five state and municipal legislative efforts to ban rental price-fixing in 2024, including enacted bans in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Already legislators in eleven states have introduced bills in 2025 to ban this practice, with Economic Liberties submitting testimony on relevant bills in New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Washington just this week.

“We’re excited to launch the 2025 End Rental Price-Fixing campaign. It’s long past time to make digitally-coordinated landlord cartels a thing of the past,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Rent-setting algorithms have made it easy for landlords across America to eliminate competition and gouge renters. Renters are fed up, and in the second half of 2024, we were proud to assist with first-in-the-nation municipal bans passed in San Francisco and Philadelphia, as well as bills introduced in San Jose, San Diego, and New Jersey. In the new year, bills have already been introduced in 11 states. As momentum continues to build, our campaign will provide resources and organizing support to help advocates, policymakers, and renters to secure a fair and open housing market.”

Corporations such as RealPage—whose software helps landlords share data in order to set rents above competitive levels and raise marginal profits, even at lower occupancy rates — have been connected to affordability crises in cities from Seattle to Atlanta. According to a complaint by the Arizona Attorney General, RealPage alone is allegedly responsible for 12 and 13 percent rent increases in Phoenix and Tucson, respectively.

In April 2024, Economic Liberties and Local Progress released a brief outlining the tools that states and municipalities can use to combat software-driven rental price-fixing. In July, San Francisco became the first municipality to limit the practice, followed soon after by Philadelphia. These legislative efforts came alongside numerous law enforcement actions. In August 2024, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division sued RealPage for violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. This blockbuster suit followed a multi-district class action litigation in the Middle District of Tennessee, and federal and state antitrust lawsuits complaints filed by the DC Attorney General Schwalb and Arizona Attorney General Mayes.

In 2025, eleven states have already proposed legislation to ban rent-fixing: Connecticut, Washington, Maryland, California, Hawaii, Colorado, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and New Hampshire. End Rental Price-Fixing will track both legislation and enforcement actions across the federal, state, and municipal levels. The campaign will also elevate the voices of concerned citizens, soliciting their rental price-fixing stories and connecting them to their state representatives to demand action.

Learn more about the campaign to end rental price-fixing here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.