This taxonomy is useful, and the instinct to keep the categories separate is right for legislation. But it's worth noting where they stack. Rental housing is probably the clearest example.
Algorithmic price fixing through RealPage sets the recommended rent. But the recommendation has structural weight because RealPage's clients collectively control roughly 70% of multifamily units in markets like Phoenix and Seattle. The algorithm coordinates pricing. The concentration ensures there's nowhere to escape to. And the platform explicitly recommends holding units vacant rather than lowering rent, which means the supply side is being managed by the same system setting the price.
That's #5 on your list doing the work of #2 and #4 simultaneously, in a market where consumers can't comparison shop their way out because the same data feed is pricing most of the available inventory.
Arizona's AG found 12-13% overcharges across tens of thousands of units. Stoller estimated up to a quarter of rental inflation between 2020-2024 may trace to this. And the DOJ case was dropped by Gail Slater earlier this year, so the enforcement window is closing even as the practice scales.
The legislative challenge is that a bill targeting algorithmic collusion alone doesn't address the concentration that makes the collusion effective. Housing may need both.
The solution to all these problems is a law mandating that the price for a product can only be changed once per day. I believe this is the law in NJ when it comes to gas presumably so that station owners don't have a white price and a Black price.
This taxonomy is useful, and the instinct to keep the categories separate is right for legislation. But it's worth noting where they stack. Rental housing is probably the clearest example.
Algorithmic price fixing through RealPage sets the recommended rent. But the recommendation has structural weight because RealPage's clients collectively control roughly 70% of multifamily units in markets like Phoenix and Seattle. The algorithm coordinates pricing. The concentration ensures there's nowhere to escape to. And the platform explicitly recommends holding units vacant rather than lowering rent, which means the supply side is being managed by the same system setting the price.
That's #5 on your list doing the work of #2 and #4 simultaneously, in a market where consumers can't comparison shop their way out because the same data feed is pricing most of the available inventory.
Arizona's AG found 12-13% overcharges across tens of thousands of units. Stoller estimated up to a quarter of rental inflation between 2020-2024 may trace to this. And the DOJ case was dropped by Gail Slater earlier this year, so the enforcement window is closing even as the practice scales.
The legislative challenge is that a bill targeting algorithmic collusion alone doesn't address the concentration that makes the collusion effective. Housing may need both.
The solution to all these problems is a law mandating that the price for a product can only be changed once per day. I believe this is the law in NJ when it comes to gas presumably so that station owners don't have a white price and a Black price.