Lonzell T. Battle lives and works as a concierge in Jersey City. He testified before the Assembly’s housing committee Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, about a bill that would prohibit landlords from using new technology to fix rents, which affordable housing advocates say inflates rental prices. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey would become the first state in the nation to prohibit landlords from using algorithmic software to set rent prices and reduce competition under legislation an Assembly panel advanced Thursday.
The bill prompted passionate — but polarized — testimony from advocates who packed a hearing before the Assembly’s housing committee at the Statehouse in Trenton. Supporters said it’s needed to stop runaway rents and greedy landlords in a state where housing costs are among the highest in the country, while critics called it unnecessary because it duplicates antitrust law.
The committee passed the measure, which would make use of such algorithms a violation of the state’s antitrust law and bar landlords from otherwise coordinating to drive up rents, in a 4-2 vote split along party lines.
Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez (D-Middlesex), the committee’s chair and the bill’s prime sponsor, said she introduced the measure after learning the U.S. Department of Justice had investigated and sued, alongside eight states, the property management software company RealPage Inc. over its pricing algorithm. The feds said RealPage’s software enables landlords — who otherwise would be competitors — to instead share confidential, competitively sensitive information in order to align their rents and create an artificial scarcity that ensures rent prices remain high and keep climbing.
“Collusion by any means is not only wrong, but illegal,” Lopez said. “We need to do everything we can to ensure fairness in our rental housing market, and I believe banning these schemes is critical to that goal.”
Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez (D-Middlesex), who chairs the Assembly’s housing committee, listens to testimony on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, on a bill she sponsored that would prohibit landlords from using price-fixing software. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Legislators heard about an hour of testimony from advocates, most of whom support the bill.
Lonzell T. Battle told legislators he has lived in Jersey City for 18 years, but his two-bedroom apartment has become so expensive for his family of four that he worries they’ll have to move. He also works as a concierge for a property management company in Jersey City, and while rents have risen relentlessly, he said, he has to fight for a living wage.
“They share very little of the profits with the hard workers,” Battle testified. “I’m being squeezed from either side. As my wages stay the same, health care costs and living expenses is pulling me from one or the other side.”
It’s not a problem unique to Jersey City, said former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who also testified. McGreevey, who’s now running to become mayor in Jersey City, told the Assembly panel that skyrocketing rents come as rent inflation has outpaced currency inflation.
“The rise in rents is not simply a market trend,” McGreevey said. “The considerable rent increases have been fueled in part by algorithmic pricing … We will accept the free market economy. What we cannot accept are inappropriate practices.”
Kevin Weller is a Jersey City resident and lead plaintiff in a federal class-action complaint filed in April 2023 against RealPage and about 25 property-management firms over rent-fixing.
He urged legislators to set penalties for local government officials, too, saying they enable predatory landlords by failing to enforce existing local rent-control laws.
“What brought us here isn’t just about algorithms. It’s about a deliberate failure to enforce existing laws right here in New Jersey,” Weller said. “These algorithms are sophisticated tools that process vast amounts of data to maximize rent extraction. But there’s a critical point: They simply can’t operate effectively in jurisdictions with properly enforced rent control laws.”
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, a Democrat seeking to become governor in 2026, told the New Jersey Monitor that criticism isn’t accurate, saying Weller’s dispute lies with the city’s rent-leveling board.
“First of all, I am a 100% supporter of restricting those algorithms,” Fulop said. “Secondly, Jersey City has the strictest rent control rules allowed in New Jersey … and third, we’ve done everything in this particular instance to do the right thing by the tenants from a legal standpoint. And our track record and documentation are very clear.”
Property managers and RealPage not on board
The bill did have a few detractors — perhaps most notably RealPage, which was represented by Mike Semko, the company’s associate general counsel.
Mike Semko, associate general counsel of RealPage, Inc., testifies before the Assembly’s housing committee on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at the Statehouse in Trenton. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Semko, though, didn’t detail his objections and said he couldn’t say much about the claims against RealPage other than to call them “patently, categorically false.”
“We are ready to get into court and defend ourselves, because we are very confident we’re not violating the law,” Semko said. “RealPage wants to comply with the law, and so I can assure you, whatever New Jersey decides to do, we will make sure that our products comply with whatever the Legislature decides to do.”
Nicholas Kikis of the New Jersey Apartment Association also opposed the bill, telling legislators it’s unnecessary and suggesting they wait until the federal courts decide the pending lawsuits.
“If this is about antitrust concerns, we already have antitrust laws on the books, and they’re laws that have some of the most significant penalties, and rightfully so,” Kikis said. “Under federal law, it could be up to a $100 million penalty, 10 years of imprisonment. Under state law, you’d be looking at the dissolution of a business or the loss of ability to do business in New Jersey. And these are very serious penalties under very comprehensive statutes with very established case law.”
The bill’s Senate companion, which awaits a hearing before that body’s community and urban affairs committee, is sponsored by Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth). A similar Senate bill that’s sponsored by Sens. Brian Stack (D-Hudson) and Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), has not yet been heard by the same committee (it has no Assembly companion).
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