AI Frontier Institute

Relating To Antitrust.

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Hawaii House Bill 2611 (33rd Legislature, 2026) amends Chapter 480 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes to prohibit algorithmic rent price-fixing in Hawaii's residential rental market. Section 2 adds a new section (§480-[new]) declaring it unlawful for: (1) a 'coordinator' to perform a 'coordinating function'; (2) a coordinator to facilitate agreements among rental property owners that restrict competition on pricing, lease terms, or occupancy levels; or (3) two or more rental property owners to engage in 'consciously parallel pricing coordination.' The bill defines 'coordinating function' as collecting rental pricing and lease data from two or more landlords, processing it through algorithmic systems, and then recommending prices or lease terms back to landlords. A 'coordinator' includes any person—including a landlord acting for their own benefit—who operates software or data analytics performing this function. Section 2 also requires the Department of the Attorney General to create a public education program and adopt administrative rules under Chapter 91. Section 3 amends §480-16(a) to extend criminal penalties to violations of the new section, with fines up to $100,000 and/or imprisonment up to three years for natural persons, and fines up to $1,000,000 for non-natural persons. The bill's findings cite a 2024 White House Council of Economic Advisers study estimating algorithmic pricing cost renters approximately $70 per month on average and $3.8 billion nationwide in 2023, and reference a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice complaint regarding coercive features in property management software.

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