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What’s missing here is that landlords agree to use the algorithm or leave the unit empty. It’s part of the TOS. So when many marker participants do this, it’s c

• AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  Wow, that's brazen if true. I don't know why anybody is even talking about algorithms. That's a contract to fix prices. It also implies that all of the landlords using it are idiots. Not only is price fixing illegal, joining the cartel is optional and costs you money for no personal advantage because you'd have to leave your units vacant instead of immediately renting them out at the higher price induced by the "selfless" idiots in the cartel.
  • jprete 3y ago
    If holding back 20% of the units in every building drives up prices by 30% - this is completely possible in something like real estate where supply is so inflexible - then each individual landlord might have a motivation to defect, but the group as a whole has a reason to cooperate. The purpose of the software is to give the coordinators visibility into who's cooperating. Note that the TOS requires a landlord to always use the algorithm's pricing decision, including leaving units empty, and requires reporting back on every lease transaction so the company can measure compliance. This really is collusion as a service.
    • mlrtime 3y ago
      I agree, but one missing component is how many housing units are represented by this software in a given market. If everything here is true [price fixing] but the number of units is small 20%, it still won't work. Consumers will go to the 80% where the actual market lives. Now maybe someone better at economics can tell me how many units does it take to shift the market? 50%?