Las Vegas Joins 70 Fire Agencies Suing Pierce, REV Group and Rosenbauer Over Alleged Price-Fixing Conspiracy

Source: Las Vegas Sun ↗

About 70 fire and rescue agencies and local governments, including Las Vegas Fire & Rescue in Nevada, have filed a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that Pierce Manufacturing, REV Group and Rosenbauer America conspired to double fire apparatus prices and manufacture artificial order backlogs over the past 10 years.

The complaint, centralized before Judge William Griesbach in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, names Pierce and its parent Oshkosh Corp., REV Group Inc., Rosenbauer America and their subsidiaries, and the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association trade group. The three manufacturers together hold 70% to 80% of the $3 billion fire apparatus market, according to the complaint, a position it traces to private equity-driven consolidation of independent manufacturers that began in 2008. “The Manufacturer Defendants relied on the industry’s relatively inelastic demand to artificially create long backlogs of orders from fire departments,” the complaint states. “Manufacturer Defendants exploited their dominant position and conspired to raise prices almost twofold and restrict output rather than compete.”

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, which operates 22 stations covering 150 square miles in Clark County, joined the lawsuit in June through an amended complaint filed over the summer. The city said a September 2021 order of four engines and one truck from Wisconsin-based Pierce Manufacturing Inc. cost a combined $4.1 million and took 22 months to be delivered. The same order placed in October 2022 cost $5.2 million, and when the city joined the lawsuit in June, it still had not received those trucks from Pierce, more than 3½ years after ordering them. The city alleges Pierce and the other defendants violated the Nevada Unfair Trade Practice Act and the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act by engaging in “unfair, unconscionable, or deceptive acts or practices.” A city spokesman said the city generally does not comment on pending litigation.

The plaintiffs alleged that price increases and inflation alone do not account for the doubling of apparatus costs over the past decade. The complaint cited consequences it attributes to aging fleets that departments cannot afford to replace: in January 2025, more than 100 Los Angeles Fire Department vehicles were out of service when wildfires swept the Los Angeles area, according to the fire chief; in San Francisco, where half the ladder trucks are more than 20 years old, firefighters reroute around steep hills to avoid stalling; and at a Chicago house fire, a crew had to restart a stalled truck before raising the ladder, and four people died in the blaze, including a 5-year-old child.

In a joint letter sent May 13, 2025, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the American Economic Liberties Project, an antimonopoly organization, asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate consolidation in the fire apparatus industry that they say has led to an oligopoly. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., launched a Senate investigation in 2025 into private equity’s role in the industry. “Communities across the country depend on the timely availability of reliable firefighting services,” the letter said. “Taking vigorous, immediate action is essential to slash wasteful local government spending, redirect the savings to creating good, non-offshorable American jobs in firefighting — and ultimately, save lives, homes and entire communities.”

In an August motion to dismiss, the defendants denied colluding to fix prices. “Speculation does not state an antitrust claim. But that is all Class Plaintiffs offer: They simply theorize that post-pandemic price increases and delays for fire trucks are the product of a sprawling conspiracy rather than simple economics,” the motion said. “The pandemic prompted skyrocketing demand and disrupted supply chains causing price increases and longer wait times. None of that has anything to do with an antitrust violation.”