An Algorithm Raised the Rent on 4 Million Apartments. The Fine Was Zero.

RealPage's software priced 1 in 4 US apartments. The DOJ called it a cartel. Renters paid $3.8B extra in 2023 alone. The settlement: zero fines, zero money returned.

Now RealPage is suing New York for banning the algorithm entirely.

Read more: https://dev.to/mothasa/an-algorithm-raised-the-rent-on-4-million-apartments-the-fine-was-zero-h0f

#AI #Technology #Housing #Antitrust #AlgorithmicPricing

"According to private and federal lawsuits, the country’s biggest meat processors have been using a secretive data company to share sensitive information, enabling them to hike up prices and suppress wages for decades.

The revelation comes as meat prices have increased precipitously. Since 1985, the price of ground beef has increased by over 400 percent, far outpacing inflation. Meanwhile, meat-industry workers’ wages have largely stagnated.

Despite growing scrutiny and public outcry over algorithmic price setting of consumer goods and services, critics say meatpackers are settling these collusion lawsuits without admitting guilt or paying substantial penalties, meaning they’re free to keep using the data analytics firm to fix prices and drive down workers’ earnings.

“[The meatpackers] win with their settlements, and never once do the packers have to admit guilt,” independent rancher Mike Callicrate told The Lever. “What’s happened is these law firms now have just gone around filing cases, knowing that they can take money out of the packer’s pocket, while the packer retains the ability to take it right out of the producer’s pocket and the consumer’s pocket.”

And while President Donald Trump has promised to crack down on price fixing in agriculture, he’s financially benefited from some of the companies he’s criticized."

https://www.levernews.com/the-secret-algorithm-behind-your-20-burger/

#USA #Food #Algorithms #DynamicPricing #AlgorithmicPricing

"On a Thursday in early September, more than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis.

Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery.

The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20 percent more than some others, for the exact same product.

The shoppers were volunteers, participating in a study published on Tuesday and organized by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer publication. In tests in four cities across the country, nearly 200 volunteers checked prices on 20 grocery items on Instacart.

On item after item, they found significant differences. In a Target in North Canton, Ohio, some shoppers were charged $3.59 for a jar of Skippy peanut butter that others could get for $2.99. At a Safeway in Seattle, some people paid $3.99 for a box of Wheat Thins while others paid $4.89. And at a Target in St. Paul, Minn., some people were charged $4.59 for a box of Cheerios that others could get for $3.99.

“Two shoppers who are buying the exact same item from the exact same store at the exact same time are getting different prices,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. “The data really backs up how extraordinarily pervasive this is.”
(...)
Groundwork’s findings are the latest example of how the notion of a single price, offered to all customers for a predictable period, is breaking down in the digital age. Companies are using sophisticated algorithms to adjust prices quickly in response to competitors’ offers and consumer behavior."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/business/instacart-algorithmic-pricing.html

#USA #AlgorithmicPricing #DynamicPricing #Insatacart #Inflation #Algorithms

I'm only half way thru, but folks you've gotta see this 🤬. #algorithmicPricing

"We Had 400 People Shop For Groceries. What We Found Will Shock You."

A collaboration of More Perfect Union with Consumer Reports, journalists and researchers.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=osxr7xSxsGo&si=-us-YT8y8wXpO1U4