New Jersey enacts FAIR Act to ban algorithmic rent price fixing

New Jersey has become an early mover in AI regulation for housing, enacting the "Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent (FAIR) Act" on July 20. The law amends the New Jersey Antitrust Act to prohibit rental property owners from paying a third-party "algorithmic rental price setting coordinator" — effectively banning the use of AI-driven pricing tools that help landlords collectively raise rents. The FAIR Act targets a practice where algorithms ingest market data from multiple landlords to suggest or set rental prices, which critics argue facilitates coordination akin to price fixing.

The New Jersey law is part of a broader legislative surge in 2026. According to the Transparency Coalition AI's mid-year report, 84 AI-related bills have been enacted across 27 states so far this year. These cover diverse areas: chatbot safety, education and children's digital lives, medical authorization and mental health, consumer rights, and frontier model oversight. Meanwhile, California has 30 remaining AI bills under review, including measures on social media liability for child harm, copyright disclosure for AI training data, student privacy protections for digital operators, and chatbot customer service requirements. Massachusetts is also advancing a statewide privacy bill. The FAIR Act signals that state legislatures are increasingly targeting specific high-impact applications of AI, especially in housing and antitrust contexts.