San Francisco has become the first city to ban the sale or use of revenue management software that deploys algorithms to set multifamily rents or management occupancy levels.

The new ordinance, passed unanimously last week by the Board of Supervisors, targets the use by revenue management platforms of data not generally available to the public. It prohibits price-suggesting "algorithmic devices" that advise individual landlords on how to price their rentals based on data collected from landlords across the city.

Introduced by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the legislation empowers tenants and the city to sue software providers and landlords who use algorithmic revenue management programs to set their rents or to keep units vacant.