Ohio bill aims to ban A.I.-driven pricing algorithms that exploit competitor data
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Bipartisan Ohio lawmakers are reviving an effort to regulate pricing algorithms, software that often uses artificial intelligence to adjust prices, rent and wages in order to maximize a company’s profits.
House Bill 665, introduced last month by Reps. Christine Cockley (D-Columbus) and Tex Fischer (R-Boardman), would prohibit such algorithms that collect “non-public competitor data,” which is confidential information about a corporation’s competitor, like future pricing, rent amounts, customer lists and internal business plans. These algorithms, with the help of a trained computer system or AI, analyze that data to set the company’s prices.
Cockley, in a statement to Nexstar’s NBC4, said the legislation is needed to “ensure that Ohioan’s data cannot be used to set unjust prices or wages.”
“Ohio’s economy should work for everyone — not just the biggest corporations with the most powerful technology,” the statement said. “As large companies increasingly use pricing algorithms and artificial intelligence to set prices, rents, and wages, Ohioans deserve transparency. H.B. 665 will safeguard Ohio consumers, workers, and businesses from a growing gap in Ohio antitrust laws.”
H.B. 665 would also require companies with more than $5 million in gross receipts to disclose, including to customers before they purchase a product or service, if they use a pricing algorithm without non-public competitor data. Corporations found in violation of the legislation will be punished by criminal penalties and damages, the bill states.
“Technology has made life better in more ways than we can count, but with new developments come new problems,” Fischer said in a statement to Nexstar’s NBC4. “This is a reasonable update to Ohio’s anti-trust and consumer protection laws that will promote transparency and ensure that market power is still held by the individuals and not abdicated to software.”
Cockley and Fischer’s legislation acts as a companion bill to Senate Bill 79, a proposal introduced in February 2025 by Sens. Louis Blessing, III (R-Colerain Township) and Willis Blackshear Jr. (D-Dayton). S.B. 79, which also bans pricing algorithms that use non-public competitor data, received a committee hearing last March, but hasn’t moved forward since.
During the March hearing, Blackshear said that such algorithms are often used in the apartment rental industry. The lawmaker cited a December 2024 White House report that showed pricing algorithms can add an average of $70 per month to the cost of rent in algorithm-utilizing buildings. The same study also found that several major metropolitan areas nationwide had more than 30% of landlords utilizing the same rental pricing software.
“The companies that own apartment complexes often contract with the same software companies to determine optimal rates to charge tenants,” Blackshear said. “This leads to landlords within the same geographical area using data to effectively fix prices and raise rates on consumers.”
The use of AI has exacerbated this issue, Blackshear said, arguing that the popularity of common AI models makes it increasingly likely that two companies or individuals can use the same software to formulate prices for their businesses. The lawmaker said that these “uncompetitive market factors” have played a large role in increasing inflation.
“If multiple companies in an industry use the same or similar pricing algorithms, it can create the effect of a cartel,” Blackshear said. “By eliminating the practice of using pricing algorithms with non-public competitor data, we will limit the market concentration in numerous industries and even the playing field for consumers.”
H.B. 665 has been assigned to the House Technology and Innovation Committee, while S.B. 79 is delegated to the Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee. Both could receive additional hearings open for public testimony.