Rockville just banned algorithmic rent pricing. Will MoCo follow suit?
Jawando’s proposal to end the practice countywide faced pushback from housing industry representatives at March public hearing
By
Ceoli JacobyJuly 10, 2026 11:40 a.m.
Share
Facebook X ReddIt Email Print Copy URL
Rockville this week became the first jurisdiction in Maryland to bar residential landlords from using algorithmic devices to set rents — but it remains to be seen whether Montgomery County will follow suit.
Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton and the City Council of Rockville on Monday voted unanimously to pass a near-total ban on the practice, which has in recent years been the subject of separate antitrust lawsuits by the U.S. Department of Justice and the state Attorney General.
“We do believe that housing is a basic necessity, and our rental market should be driven by fair competition — not algorithms that reduce competition and drive up rents,” Ashton told Bethesda Today in a phone interview on Wednesday. She added that tenants in the city “deserve to know that their rents are being set through independent business decisions.”
Rockville’s law, which takes effect Jan. 1, defines an algorithmic device as “a product or service that uses algorithms, draws on non-public competitor data from two or more landlords and recommends rents, fees, terms or occupancy levels.”
- Advertisement -
It prevents most residential landlords from coordinating prices with other landlords and paying for algorithmic pricing or price-coordination services. Landlords who only own one unit in the city are exempt. The ban is the culmination of a larger rewrite of Rockville’s rental housing code, according to city officials.
Earlier this year, Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At-large) introduced a bill that would ban algorithmic rent pricing countywide. Ashton spoke in favor of the bill, which is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Shebra Evans (D-At-large) and Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5), during a March press conference and subsequent public hearing.
Montgomery County Dels. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Dist. 17) and Vaughn Stewart (D-Dist. 19) co-sponsored a bill during the 2026 Maryland General Assembly Session to ban the use of algorithmic devices by landlords statewide. The proposal never made it out of committee.
Industry pushback
Jawando and Rockville officials have faced pushback from housing industry representatives, who argue that bans on algorithmic devices are unnecessary and would hamper their ability to do business.
Sponsored
Honoring the Service of Native American Women at the National Museum of the American Indian
Maryland Dog Bite Laws: What Victims Need to Know About Liability and Compensation
Featured Now
Brian Anleu, the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington’s vice president for government affairs in Maryland, said during the March public hearing on Jawando’s bill that the county “does not have a software problem.”
According to Anleu, the majority of housing providers in the county do not use algorithmic devices. Those that do only accept a device’s recommendations a third of the time, he argued in March.
Mike Semko, senior vice president at RealPage, told the County Council in March that the company’s software “does not set rents — we suggest a rent based on market analysis.” He warned that other jurisdictions, such as New York, have seen their bans challenged in court.
Ashton told Bethesda Today on Wednesday that city officials “understand that there are expenses that need to be recovered” by landlords in order to make their business worthwhile. However, she said, “our job in the city is to take a holistic view.”
“We are not anti-technology. We are pro-innovation,” Ashton said. “But we also want to make sure we’re being pro-competition, pro-transparency and pro-community.”
- Advertisement -
In a statement to Bethesda Today on Thursday, Jawando — the Democratic nominee for county executive — described Rockville’s ban on algorithmic rent pricing as “a real win.”
He added that he looks forward to working with his council colleagues to pass his Anti-Algorithmic Price Fixing Act “so all Montgomery County renters get the same protection.”
A widespread practice
Ashton has said Rockville officials are aware of at least eight multifamily properties comprising nearly 2,000 market-rate units in the municipality that are managed by companies named in either state or federal antitrust lawsuits.
“My gut says it’s significantly higher,” said Grant Samms, president of the Reed Tenant Association and the head of Rockville Renters United, in a Thursday phone interview with Bethesda Today. He added that it can be difficult to know when algorithmic devices are in use at a particular property.
“One of the giveaways that we look for is when tenants will get a percentage … and the [leasing] office will say ‘we don’t have any control over that, the computer tells us what the number is’,” Samms said. “That’s an indication that there could be some kind of algorithmic pricing going on.”
Samms told Bethesda Today he and other tenant advocates are hopeful that Rockville’s ban on algorithmic rent pricing will make a “meaningful difference in how high average we see average rents climb” across entire buildings.
However, he said, tenants still need more protection from retaliation, eviction without good cause and the double-digit rent increases that led his organization to push for a rent stabilization law in Rockville.
Ashton and a majority of the City Council rejected a proposed rent stabilization law in July 2025, citing concerns it would stymie development of new housing. The proposal was co-sponsored by Councilmembers David Myles and Izola Shaw, the latter of whom narrowly lost her bid for an open seat representing District 3 on the County Council in the June 23 primary election.
“Just because we banned algorithmic pricing doesn’t mean we’ve stopped rent gouging in the city,” Shaw told Bethesda Today in a Thursday phone interview. “That does still need to be addressed with rent stabilization.”
Rockville’s mayor and council do not plan to revisit rent stabilization this term, according to Shaw and Ashton. The county caps annual increases at the region’s consumer price index (CPI) plus 3% with a hard cap of 6% of the base rent, but its law does not cover incorporated municipalities.
As of this week, Jawando’s proposed ban on algorithmic rent pricing had not been added to the schedule for the council’s Planning, Housing and Parks Committee to review.
Councilmember Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1), who chairs the committee, told Bethesda Today in a text message on Wednesday that a significant number of proposed zoning text amendments are also pending review.
“We are looking to add it as soon as we can find committee time to do it, most likely shortly after we return from August recess,” Friedson said of Jawando’s proposal.
If Jawando’s bill advances out of the committee, it would head to the full council for a final vote. The proposal is set to expire in early December, when the new council and county executive are scheduled to be sworn in.
Digital Partners
Originally published at Bethesdamagazine