OTTAWA — The Competition Bureau has confirmed it's investigating the possible use of AI-driven algorithmic pricing in Canadian real estate rental markets.
If the penalty for the bread price fixing our shitty grocery corps did is any indication, even if it’s already illegal, landlords “breaking the law” will have to pay a fine of a couple dollars and be told they should feel very, very bad because they’ve been very naughty.
Hmm, I think the argument would be that if they’re all using the same system or handful of systems for setting prices then there technically are only a small number of players.
It’s easier to approach from the angle that a single third party is coordinating a large portion of the market pricing. That is the effect of such an algorithm being under a single party’s control and one of the forms a cartel can take.
It might not be enforced but an industry using a single set of pricing guidelines is a cartel and that level of collusion is illegal. This has been litigated before in the US - I’m not well versed enough in Canadian history to say whether it’s happened up here as well. This specifically would be a single third party directing price fixing for an industry and is one way people have tried to evade anti-monopoly rules in the past.
Pretty sure it’s not illegal either way
What about price fixing?
If the penalty for the bread price fixing our shitty grocery corps did is any indication, even if it’s already illegal, landlords “breaking the law” will have to pay a fine of a couple dollars and be told they should feel very, very bad because they’ve been very naughty.
Price fixing only works when there are a small number of players. There are literally millions of landlords in Canada.
Hmm, I think the argument would be that if they’re all using the same system or handful of systems for setting prices then there technically are only a small number of players.
It’s easier to approach from the angle that a single third party is coordinating a large portion of the market pricing. That is the effect of such an algorithm being under a single party’s control and one of the forms a cartel can take.
It might not be enforced but an industry using a single set of pricing guidelines is a cartel and that level of collusion is illegal. This has been litigated before in the US - I’m not well versed enough in Canadian history to say whether it’s happened up here as well. This specifically would be a single third party directing price fixing for an industry and is one way people have tried to evade anti-monopoly rules in the past.