A Federal Judge Blocked New York's Ban on Rent-Setting Software, Calling It 'Normal Commercial Conduct' That Happens to Run on Software
About This Episode
US District Judge Valerie Caproni issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, September 29, stopping New York from enforcing the landlord provision of its first-in-the-nation ban on algorithmic rent-setting. RealPage, the Thoma Bravo-owned maker of the rent-recommendation software, argued the law violated its First Amendment right to offer advice; the judge called it a 'close call' and found RealPage 'marginally' likely to win because the statute does not distinguish software fed with competitors' private data from software that reads public listings.
Our Take
The judge did not bless rent-fixing; she said New York drew its line around the software instead of around the harm, and the episode follows what a rule aimed at the harm (what the software is fed, and whether a renter can see it) would have to look like.
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Its transparency principle frames the contrast between a disclosure rule New York already won in court and a ban it just lost, and why a renter still cannot see whether software set the rent.