Overview
- Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel W. Glad delivered the warning at the Antitrust West Coast Conference on Thursday, saying algorithmic conduct is not beyond the reach of criminal antitrust enforcement.
- The Division said the ‘‘door to the per se rule’’ is open when rivals adopt the same pricing tool, know that sensitive nonpublic data will help set prices, and act on that understanding.
- DOJ officials pointed to investigative resources now in play, including the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, the Leniency Program, and the new Whistleblower Rewards Program, as ways to detect and pursue algorithm-enabled collusion.
- The department stressed that criminal cases require proof of human decision-making and intent so companies must track who supplies data, who changes model parameters, and how staff rely on algorithm outputs.
- The warning builds on prior civil work that argued shared algorithms can be treated as per se price fixing and follows filings in In re RealPage and In re Multiplan plus a November 2025 RealPage consent judgment restricting real-time granular pricing data.