New Jersey A 3497: Requires that, by 2025, at least 30 percent of all energy consumed by State entities be from renewable energy sources.

Bill Text

P.L. 2026, c.043 (A3497 1R ACS) 

Title 
56

Chapter 
9 (Rename)

Antitrust 
Acts

��1-7

C.56:9-20

to 
56:9-26

��8,9

Note

P.L. 
2026, CHAPTER 43, approved July 20, 2026

Assembly Committee 
Substitute (First Reprint) for

Assembly, No. 3497

An Act 
concerning residential rental property pricing and supplementing P.L.1970, c.73 
(C.56:9-1 et seq.).

���� Be It Enacted by the Senate and General 
Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� This act shall be known and may be cited as the 
�Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent (FAIR) Act.�

���� 2.��� The Legislature finds and declares that: 

���� a.���� New Jersey is in the midst of an affordable 
housing crisis, as demonstrated by rental housing industry data showing median 
rent for a three-bedroom apartment increasing by 35 percent in the State from 
2021 through 2024 and a studio in a more urban environment such as Hoboken 
increasing by 61 percent in the same timeframe. 

���� b.��� Data from the United States Census Bureau 
indicates that over 50 percent of renters in New Jersey are deemed �rent 
burdened,� which means an individual spends more than 30 percent of income on 
rent. 

���� c.���� Recent national data indicates that landlords of 
residential rental housing use property management software to collude to 
restrain trade and raise residential rental housing prices, which has contributed 
to recent increases in the State. 

���� d.��� Landlords engaging with the software supply 
real-time prices and additional lease information to companies managing the 
software, who proceed to use algorithms to fix rental prices. As a result, 
competition decreases and rental prices increase. 

���� e.���� A leading property management software company 
in the United States hinted at the outcome of using its software by stating on 
its website that it enables landlords to �outperform the market� by up to seven 
percent, with a company executive publicly stating that the software could be 
responsible for rent increases of up to 14.5 percent. 

���� f.���� Property management 
software companies and landlords who use algorithmic systems that serve a 
coordinating function have been subject to public and private litigation for 
alleged violation of existing State and federal antitrust law.

���� g.��� Although the form of 
restraint of trade has evolved, the vital role of antitrust law in maintaining 
the competitive function of the free market remains.

���� h.��� New Jersey recognizes housing as a basic human 
need and endeavors to expand access to affordable housing. 

���� 3.��� As used in this act: 

���� �Affordability controls� means a restriction on rent 
price established pursuant to a government program, including but not limited 
to: the federal section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program, 
authorized pursuant to Subpart M of Part 982 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (24 CFR 982.601 et seq.); P.L.2004, c.140 (C.52:27D-287.1 et seq.); 
the �Fair Housing Act,� P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.); any program 
administered by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency; a rent 
control or rent leveling ordinance; or other local, State, or federal 
government housing program.

���� 1�Algorithmic 
device� means a device that uses one or more algorithms to process or otherwise 
perform calculations of data, including, but not limited to, data concerning 
rental prices, material lease terms, or occupancy levels.� An algorithmic 
device does not include: (1) a spreadsheet that (a) operates without artificial 
intelligence and (b) requires human analysis to process or otherwise perform 
calculations of data; or (2) a database that only uses an algorithm to query 
unprocessed data stored on or within that database.1

����� �Competitively 
sensitive information� means nonpublic information including, but not limited 
to, prices, supply levels, security deposits, ideal occupancy levels, lease 
contract termination, renewal dates of residential dwelling units, or any other 
material lease terms.

���� �Coordinating function� means: 

���� (1)�� collecting the competitively sensitive 
information of two or more rental property owners for the purpose of analyzing 
or processing information through the use of an algorithm or other automated 
process, including by using the information to train an algorithm, where the 
algorithm or other automated process is used to set or recommend rental prices, 
material lease terms, or occupancy levels; 

���� (2)�� setting rental prices, material lease terms, or 
occupancy levels pursuant to an underlying algorithm or other automated process 
that analyzes or processes competitively sensitive information of any other 
rental property owner, including by using that competitively sensitive 
information to train an algorithm; or

���� (3)�� setting for or recommending to two or more rental 
property owners: rental prices, material lease terms, or occupancy levels 
pursuant to the