STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1573 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 10, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. KRUEGER, CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to prohibiting the use of algorithmic systems to artificially inflate the price or reduce the supply of leased or rented residential dwelling units in the state The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "New York Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing 3 Cartels Act of 2024". 4 § 2. The real property law is amended by adding a new section 222-a to 5 read as follows: 6 § 222-a. Algorithmic systems. 1. As used in this section: 7 (a) "Consciously parallel pricing coordination" means a tacit agree- 8 ment between two or more rental property owners to raise, lower, change, 9 maintain, or manipulate pricing for the purchase or sale of reasonably 10 interchangeable products or services. 11 (b) "Coordinating function" means: 12 (i) collecting historical or contemporaneous prices, supply levels, or 13 lease or rental contract termination and renewal dates of residential 14 dwelling units from two or more rental property owners; 15 (ii) analyzing or processing of the information described in subpara- 16 graph (i) of this paragraph using a system, software, or process that 17 uses computation, including by using that information to train an algo- 18 rithm; and 19 (iii) recommending rental prices, lease renewal terms, or ideal occu- 20 pancy levels to a rental property owner. 21 (c) "Coordinator" means any person that operates a software or data 22 analytics service that performs a coordinating function for any rental 23 property owner, including a rental property owner performing a coordi- 24 nating function for their own benefit. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD03759-01-5S. 1573 2 1 (d) "Division" means the division of housing and community renewal. 2 (e) "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, associ- 3 ation, trustee, municipality or other legal entity, including corpo- 4 rations and associations existing under or authorized by the laws of 5 either the United States, the laws of any of the territories, the laws 6 of any state, or the laws of any foreign country; provided that "person" 7 shall not include the state or any state agency. 8 (f) "Pre-dispute arbitration agreement" means an agreement between two 9 or more parties to arbitrate a dispute between the parties that is made 10 before any dispute has arisen. 11 (g) "Pre-dispute joint action waiver" means an agreement between two 12 or more parties, which may be part of a pre-dispute arbitration agree- 13 ment, that: 14 (i) would prohibit or waive the right of a party to participate in a 15 joint, class, or collective action in a judicial, arbitral, administra- 16 tive, or other forum relating to a dispute between two parties; and 17 (ii) is made before any dispute has arisen. 18 (h) "Residential dwelling unit" means any house, apartment, accessory 19 unit, or other unit intended to be used as a primary residence; provided 20 that "residential dwelling unit" does not include inpatient medical 21 care, licensed long-term care, and detention or correctional facilities. 22 (i) "Rental property owner" means any individual, corporation, part- 23 nership, association, joint-stock company, trust, or unincorporated 24 organization that owns real property and leases or rents such property 25 or any portion thereof in the form of four or more residential dwelling 26 units. 27 2. It is unlawful for: 28 (a) a rental property owner, in or affecting commerce, or any agent or 29 subcontractor thereof, to subscribe to, contract with, or otherwise 30 exchange anything of value in return for the services of a coordinator; 31 (b) a coordinator, in or affecting commerce, to facilitate an agree- 32 ment among rental property owners to not compete with respect to resi- 33 dential dwelling units, including by performing a coordinating function; 34 or 35 (c) any coordinator, in or affecting commerce, to acquire, directly or 36 indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital of 37 another coordinator if the acquisition would create an appreciable risk 38 of materially lessening competition, or tend to create a monopoly or 39 monopsony, and any such acquisition shall be deemed a violation of this 40 section. 41 3. (a) In addition to any other action or proceeding authorized by 42 law, the attorney general may bring an action or special proceeding in 43 the supreme court, in the name and on behalf of the people of the state 44 of New York, against a person violating the provisions of this section 45 to enjoin such person from continuing the violation or engaging in any 46 acts in furtherance thereof, to compel compliance with the provisions of 47 this section and/or to recover any monetary penalty for such violation. 48 Any such action or proceeding may be compromised or discontinued on 49 application of the department upon such terms as the court shall approve 50 and order. 51 (b) If the department has reason to believe that a person violated 52 this section, the department may commence a civil action, in its own 53 name by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose, to 54 recover a civil penalty and seek other appropriate relief in any court 55 of competent jurisdiction.S. 1573 3 1 (c) All monies recovered in any such action or special proceeding, 2 together with the costs thereof shall be paid into the state treasury to 3 the credit of the general fund. 4 4. In a civil action under this section, a complaint: 5 (a) plausibly pleads a violation of this section and if the complaint 6 contains factual allegations, including allegations of consciously 7 parallel pricing coordination, demonstrating that the existence of a 8 contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy 9 in restraint of trade or commerce is among the realm of plausible possi- 10 bilities; and 11 (b) need not allege facts tending to exclude the possibility of inde- 12 pendent action. 13 5. A pre-dispute arbitration agreement or pre-dispute joint action 14 waiver relating to a violation of this section shall be invalid or unen- 15 forceable. 16 6. Nothing in this section shall be construed to preempt any state, 17 tribal, city, or local law, regulation, or ordinance that explicitly 18 supplements this section. 19 § 3. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, 20 section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent 21 jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or 22 invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation 23 to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part thereof 24 directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have 25 been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the legislature 26 that this act would have been enacted even if such invalid provisions 27 had not been included herein. 28 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.