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Committee introduces RS32044C1 to target algorithm-driven price-fixing in rental markets
Summary
Rep. Todd Achilles presented a request-scratch (RS) to modernize antitrust statutes to address third-party services that collect competitors' pricing data and use algorithms to coordinate rent increases; the committee voted to introduce RS32044C1.
BOISE, Idaho — The House State Affairs Committee agreed to introduce RS32044C1 after Representative Todd Achilles (R-District 16) described a proposal aimed at closing a perceived loophole in Idaho's antitrust laws.
"We all want free markets, and competitive markets," Achilles told the committee, saying RS32044C1 would make clear that sharing confidential pricing data with a third-party service that aggregates it into algorithmic pricing recommendations is unlawful price fixing. Achilles said the practice appears to be driven by a "hub-and-spoke" model in which a centralized service provider collects confidential offers from competing firms and translates that information into coordinated pricing.
Achilles highlighted the rental-housing market in Boise and Coeur d'Alene as examples where he said renters have seen rapid increases in rents and where similar algorithmic pricing schemes are under investigation in other states. He said attorneys general in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona have pursued cases alleging algorithm-assisted price-fixing in rental markets and that some landlords in those complaints operate in Idaho markets.
Committee members asked for clarifications about how RS32044C1 would interact with real-estate listing services and how the state would enforce any prohibitions on cloud-based algorithms. Representative Barbieri asked the sponsor to clarify distinctions between listing services and the covered practices; Representative Dygert asked the sponsor to address enforceability and practical evidence-gathering if data and algorithms reside on third-party servers.
After brief questions, Representative Alfieri moved to introduce RS32044C1; the committee voted to introduce the RS. The RS will be printed and, if pursued, could be revised into bill language for formal hearing and potential committee consideration.
