Law / United States / Washington / Seattle
Ordinance 127241 (Council Bill 121000), Algorithmic Rent Fixing
Seattle Municipal Code ch. 7.34
In force since .
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
- What it reaches
- supply
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not offer or operate, in Seattle, a coordinating service that uses algorithms and nonpublic competitor pricing, supply, or occupancy data from two or more landlords to recommend rental prices, fees, or lease terms
- Do not accept payment from a Seattle landlord for such a coordinating service
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
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
SMC 7.34.040: the City Attorney may file a civil action for civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation, and each instance of coordinating services for each dwelling unit may be considered a separate violation. The court may award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs to the City Attorney if the City Attorney prevails.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 7,500
Statutory damages
SMC 7.34.050: an injured person may recover damages of up to $7,500 per violation in addition to any actual damages incurred, so the sum is a ceiling per violation and not a guaranteed minimum; the court may award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs to a prevailing injured person. The section is silent on class actions.
- As of
- Currency
- USD
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Seattle City Attorney, through a civil action for civil penalties under SMC 7.34.040, and any person injured by a violation, through a private civil action under SMC 7.34.050.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does a service provider that analyzes data from "two or more landlords" but gives each recommendation to a single landlord provide recommendations "to more than one landlord" within the definition of "coordinate" in Seattle Municipal Code section 7.34.020?
- Does a service that generates a rent estimate for one landlord's unit on request amount to "publishing rental price estimates" within the exclusion in Seattle Municipal Code section 7.34.020, or only an estimate that is "equally available to all members of the public"?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The chapter bans coordinating rent-setting services and separately clarifies that a landlord's own recordkeeping software is not itself a violation. It states no duty for anyone to create, keep, or produce a log or record of coordinating services.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
It is a violation of SMC Chapter 7.34 for a landlord, in or affecting commerce, to contract with or exchange anything of value for the coordinating services of a service provider, and it is a separate violation for a service provider, in or affecting commerce, to provide coordinating services to two or more landlords. A coordinating service uses algorithms and nonpublic competitor pricing or occupancy data from multiple landlords to recommend rental prices, fees, or terms.
SMC 7.34.020 defines 'Landlord' as the owner, lessor, or sublessor of a dwelling unit and defines 'Person' to include a governmental entity. The chapter's only exclusions, in section 7.34.025, are short-term rentals and hotels, so a government agency operating as a residential landlord or as a coordinating-service provider is not carved out.
The chapter exempts a landlord's own recordkeeping software, short-term rentals, and hotels, and it exempts publicly available rent estimates that require no contract to obtain. The City Attorney may seek civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation, and any injured person may bring a private civil action.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app makes housing decisions.
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