Law / United States / California / Santa Monica
Algorithmic Rental Price Fixing (Ord. No. 2817 (CCS))
Santa Monica Municipal Code ch. 4.58
In force since .
An AI prohibited practices rule binding private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What it reaches
- supply
- What makes it apply
- Operator establishment, Place of effect
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not sell, license, or otherwise provide to a Santa Monica landlord any device that uses nonpublic competitor rent, fee, or occupancy data to set, recommend, or advise on rental rates or occupancy levels for a rental housing unit in Santa Monica
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-08Information Integrity
- GAI-RISK-11Obscene, Degrading, and/or Abusive Content
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
- ETSI EN 304 223
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionYes
Statutory damages
Santa Monica Municipal Code section 4.58.030(c): a person who violates the chapter, or aids or incites another to violate it, is liable for each offense for the aggrieved party's actual damages or statutory damages of $1,000 per violation, whichever is greater, plus attorneys' fees and costs. The aggrieved party may be a private person or the City. Section 4.58.020(b) counts each month rent is charged at an amount set in violation, and each rental housing unit, as a separate violation.
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per person minimum
- 1,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Any person aggrieved by a violation, including the City, by civil action under section 4.58.030(a); the City Attorney may also seek an injunction under section 4.58.030(b).
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does software that recommends only fees other than rent fall within "algorithmic device" in Santa Monica Municipal Code section 4.58.010, which speaks of the "rent to charge for a rental housing unit" or "whether to leave a rental housing unit vacant", even though section 4.58.020(a) separately names fees other than rent?
- Does a published aggregated report stay within exclusion (a) of Santa Monica Municipal Code section 4.58.010 when a landlord uses it to pick rents, given that the exclusion applies where the report does not "recommend rent prices or fees for future residential tenancies"?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The chapter prohibits selling or using an algorithmic device and sets civil remedies for a violation. It states no duty to create, keep, or produce on demand any record of rental rates set, devices used, or data shared.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
It is unlawful to sell, license, or otherwise provide to any landlord of a rental housing unit in Santa Monica an algorithmic device that uses nonpublic competitor rent, fee, or occupancy data to set, recommend, or advise on rental rates or occupancy levels, and separately unlawful for a landlord to use such a device. A violation may be asserted as an affirmative defense in an unlawful detainer action, and an aggrieved person or the City may bring a civil action.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app makes housing decisions.
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