AI Frontier Institute

Establishes "Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent (FAIR) Act."

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New Jersey's FAIR Act (P.L.2026, c.43), approved July 20, 2026, supplements the New Jersey Antitrust Act to bar algorithmic rent-setting coordination. Section 2 finds that rents have risen sharply, that over 50 percent of NJ renters are rent burdened, and that landlords' use of shared property management software to fix prices has reduced competition. Section 3 defines key terms. "Algorithmic device" excludes human-analyzed spreadsheets without AI and databases that only query unprocessed data. "Coordinating function" covers collecting two or more owners' nonpublic competitively sensitive information to run or train an algorithm that sets or recommends rents, lease terms or occupancy. It also covers setting terms using other owners' sensitive data, and giving two or more owners recommendations from the same or a substantially similar algorithm that facilitates parallel pricing coordination. Exclusions cover research or testing use, free public rent estimates, equal-terms brokerage listing databases, and government affordability controls. Section 4 makes it unlawful, and a violation of the Antitrust Act, for: (a) a rental property owner or its agent to pay for or subscribe to a coordinator's services; (b) a coordinator to facilitate a tacit or express agreement restricting competition among owners; (c) two or more persons to engage in or facilitate parallel pricing coordination; (d) a coordinator's agents or subcontractors to engage in parallel pricing coordination; or (e) any person to perform a coordinating function. Section 5 preserves application of sections 6 through 17 of P.L.1970, c.73 (C.56:9-6 through C.56:9-17) to violations of section 4. Section 6 says the act does not permit conduct already unlawful and bars municipal ordinances that conflict with it. Section 7 requires the Attorney General to provide a complaint location on the Department of Law and Public Safety website, and section 8 lets the Attorney General adopt rules. Under section 9, the act takes effect on the first day of the twelfth month after enactment.

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