(The Center Square) – The Spokane City Council is considering a ban on “algorithmic rent price fixing,” with a $5,000 fine per violation after Seattle and other major cities recently adopted similar measures.
The council has passed a few “tenant protection” measures in recent years, with Councilmember Zack Zappone proposing the latest on Monday. Seattle banned landlords from using algorithmic rent-setting tools last June, but San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley, Philadelphia and others have done so as well.
Spokane created a rental registry last fall, implemented anti-retaliation protections, codified the right to air conditioning in June 2024 and increased the notice period required for raising rent in April 2024.
If approved, this proposal would prohibit landlords from using software that recommends rates based on data around nearby prices, occupancies, renewals and more. Landlords could still log that data on certain platforms, but the ordinance would ban any coordinating with two or more Spokane landlords.
“There’s software and web apps available that allow for people to essentially coordinate digitally upon rental prices, vacancy rates, all that,” Zappone’s legislative assistant Jackson Deese breifed the council on Monday. “Those can artificially drive up prices in in the rental market and we want to prevent that.”
The officals didn’t have much time to discuss the proposal during a committee meeting on Monday, but Deese did mention that they probably have seen the draft a few times by now. The briefing paperwork mentions a potential vote by Nov. 10, so additional discussions are likely in the upcoming weeks.
The $5,000 fine per violation would be the second-highest nationwide, behind Seattle at up to $7,500; Philadelphia charges up to $2,000, while San Francisco and Berkeley only fine up to $1,000. Spokane’s proposal would also create a private-right-of-action much like the other cities that passed similar bans.
A group of professors and civil rights leaders from California penned a letter a few months ago urging lawmakers a reconsider the recent wave of bans against algorithmic software. Officials from Berkeley delayed the effective date of their ban to 2026 after one company sued amid ongoing budget issues.
The Biden administration sued RealPage in 2024, arguing it’s algorithmic services reduced competition, driving up prices. The Washington State Attorney General’s Office sued the company in April, claiming RealPage is “cheating renters and pricing families out of stable housing,” according to a news release.
“Algorithms can indeed be deployed to the tune of both tacit and explicit forms of collusion that yield anti-competitive effects,” according to August 2025 Urban Science study cited in Zappone’s proposal.
The Legislature considered banning algorithmic tools earlier this year, but the proposal stalled amid a significant budget shortfall. The city of Spokane is currently facing a $13 million shortfall ahead of next year, which could play a role in whether the council passes ban if it comes with costly litigation as well.
The Washington Multi-Family Housing Association pushed back against Seattle’s proposal back in June.
“Without engaging with the very people that understand these tools and the problems they are designed to help solve, we are likely to see unintended consequences,” WMFHA Government Affairs Director Carter Nelson told the Seattle City Council in June. “Taking these marketplace tools offline will actually make housing less transparent and slow down the speed housing providers fill empty units.”
