American Industrial Partners Sued Over Fire Truck Antitrust Claims

A wave of antitrust cases accuses private equity firm American Industrial Partners and the country’s largest fire apparatus manufacturers of conspiring to shrink the U.S. fire truck market and drive prices to record highs. The fire truck antitrust lawsuits, filed by cities and counties starting in December 2025, have been consolidated into a federal multidistrict litigation in Wisconsin and name American Industrial Partners (AIP), REV Group, Oshkosh Corporation and its Pierce Manufacturing subsidiary, Rosenbauer America, Boise Mobile Equipment, and the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA). A Texas attorney general investigation and a bipartisan Senate probe are running alongside the litigation.

What the Lawsuits Allege

The core claim is a price-fixing and market-allocation conspiracy that began as early as January 2016. According to the December 2025 class action filed by the City of Arcadia, California, the defendants agreed to limit fire truck supply and hold prices at artificially inflated levels, using FAMA as the coordination hub.¹

The Milwaukee complaint describes the mechanism in detail. FAMA collected nonpublic pricing, production, and sales data from member companies, had an outside accounting firm compile it, and sent reports back that let competitors monitor one another’s behavior. The suit calls it a “give-to-get” scheme, with “purchasing roundtables” at FAMA meetings functioning as the forum for coordination.²

The alleged financial impact is steep. Pumper trucks that cost around $500,000 in the mid-2010s now run roughly $1 million. Ladder trucks jumped from about $900,000 to $2 million. Wait times moved from 18 months to more than four years.¹ The Santa Barbara complaint adds that defendants deliberately reduced output by shuttering plants — including KME facilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia — to worsen backlogs and justify price hikes of 50–100% or more.³

The Los Angeles County suit also targets Oshkosh’s aftermarket practices, alleging that Pierce required customers to buy proprietary replacement parts and voided warranties when customers used cheaper alternatives.⁴ The complaint further accuses defendants of running “misinformation campaigns” that blamed shortages and price increases on pandemic disruptions rather than consolidation.⁵

How Three Companies Ended Up Controlling the Market

The plaintiffs trace the concentration back to 2008, when AIP bought fire apparatus maker E-ONE for $20 million. In 2010, AIP combined E-ONE with three other portfolio companies to form Allied Specialty Vehicles, rebranded as REV Group in 2015.³ From there came a series of acquisitions the complaints describe as a roll-up:

Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corp. (KME) in 2016 for $40.1 million.
Ferrara Fire Apparatus in 2017 for roughly $100 million.
The emergency response segment of Spartan Motors, including Smeal Fire Apparatus, in 2020 for $55 million.

AIP took REV Group public in January 2017 and remained its controlling shareholder until March 2024, when it sold about 7.4 million shares at $17.25 apiece for roughly $127.6 million and exited its position.⁶

Oshkosh Corporation pursued its own consolidation through Pierce Manufacturing. Pierce took an ownership interest in Boise Mobile Equipment in 2021 and became the exclusive distributor of BME wildland trucks. Oshkosh acquired Canadian manufacturer Maxi-Métal in 2022. Between 2018 and 2025, Pierce also bought up competing dealerships to eliminate geographic overlaps.⁷

By the time the first lawsuit was filed, three companies controlled roughly 70–80% of U.S. fire truck production: REV Group at about 33%, Oshkosh at about 25%, and Rosenbauer at about 10%. Independent manufacturers made up the remaining 20%.⁸

Who Has Sued and What They Want

The City of Arcadia filed the first major case on December 22, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on behalf of a proposed class of indirect purchasers. It seeks treble damages and injunctive relief against AIP, REV Group, Oshkosh, Rosenbauer, and FAMA.¹

Los Angeles County, the LA County Fire Department, and the People of the State of California followed on February 12, 2026, with a 143-page complaint filed in the Central District of California. That suit goes further than Arcadia’s in one respect: it asks the court to order the “unwinding” of the mergers and acquisitions that created the concentrated market. The plaintiffs also want treble damages, restitution, and civil penalties.⁴

The City of Milwaukee filed on February 18, 2026, in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, focusing its allegations on the FAMA data-sharing mechanism.² The City of Santa Barbara filed on March 20, 2026, adding detail on plant closures and output reductions.³

Where the Litigation Stands

On April 3, 2026, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered all pending fire apparatus antitrust cases centralized before Judge William C. Griesbach in the Eastern District of Wisconsin for coordinated pretrial proceedings. The proceeding is designated MDL No. 3179, In re: Fire Apparatus Antitrust Litigation, and initially covered at least 12 original actions plus seven potential tag-along cases.⁹

A consolidated amended complaint was filed on March 23, 2026. On June 9, 2026, Judge Griesbach appointed Hagens Berman, Crueger Dickinson, and Gustafson Gluek as co-lead counsel for the indirect purchaser class and directed them to file a consolidated complaint covering all claims and defendants.¹⁰

As of mid-2026, no class has been certified, no motions to dismiss have been decided, and the litigation remains at an early pretrial stage.¹¹ Potential class members include fire departments and municipalities in roughly 38 states and the District of Columbia that bought new fire trucks in the last decade.¹²

Government Investigations Running in Parallel

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on February 13, 2026, that his office was investigating REV Group, Oshkosh, and Rosenbauer for potential anticompetitive practices. His office issued Civil Investigative Demands to all three companies, requiring the production of documents on pricing, supply chain, and business practices, and the antitrust division is collecting complaints from Texas municipalities.¹³

On September 10, 2025, the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Disaster Management held a hearing titled “Sounding the Alarm: America’s Fire Apparatus Crisis,” chaired by Senator Josh Hawley. IAFF General President Edward Kelly testified that engine prices had risen from a range of $300,000–$500,000 in the mid-2010s to over $1 million, with delivery times reaching four and a half years. Kelly cited specific equipment failures tied to aging fleets, including a fatal brake failure on a Boston ladder truck and an aerial device failure in Chicago that may have contributed to four civilian deaths. Kansas City Fire Chief Dennis Rubin said that at one point in 2023, a third of his department’s engines were out of service.¹⁴

Hawley pointed to a 2024 REV Group earnings call in which the CEO characterized the company’s order backlog as beneficial for investors, and called the dynamic a “heist.” Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned whether the consolidation itself enabled the price behavior.¹⁴ Senators Jim Banks and Warren later launched a bipartisan investigation into private equity’s role in fire apparatus manufacturing.⁸

The IAFF and the American Economic Liberties Project asked the DOJ and FTC in May 2025 to open a federal antitrust investigation. There is no public confirmation as of mid-2026 that either agency has done so.¹⁵

What This Has Meant for Fire Departments

REV Group closed two manufacturing plants and cut its production capacity by roughly a third, even as demand climbed, according to Senate investigation findings. As of December 2024, the company reported a $4.2 billion backlog on fire and emergency vehicle orders.⁸

The complaints allege manufacturers adopted “floating” prices, raising a truck’s final cost after production had already begun. Pre-pandemic delivery times of about a year have stretched to between two and four-and-a-half years. Departments are keeping aging, sometimes unsafe vehicles in service well past their expected lifespans, raising compliance concerns under National Fire Protection Association standards.

The LA County complaint tied these conditions to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s struggles during the January 2025 wildfires, when half the department’s fleet was out of service.¹⁴

What the Companies Say

REV Group and Pierce Manufacturing have denied anti-competitive behavior. At the September 2025 Senate hearing, REV Group’s Mike Virnig attributed delivery delays to a 43% surge in orders between 2022 and 2023 and defended the company’s acquisitions as rescues of financially distressed manufacturers. Pierce’s Dan Meyer acknowledged that lead times were “unacceptable” but denied wrongdoing and said the company was working to increase output.¹⁶ Both companies have publicly blamed post-pandemic supply chain problems and a surge in orders for the price increases and delays.¹⁷

AIP is no longer a REV Group shareholder after its March 2024 exit, but it and its affiliated funds remain named defendants for their alleged role in engineering the industry consolidation that began in 2008.

1
CPMLegal.com. City of Arcadia v. American Industrial Partners Complaint
2
Courthouse News Service. City of Milwaukee v. Oshkosh Corporation Complaint
3
CaseFilingsAlert.com. City of Santa Barbara v. American Industrial Partners Complaint
4
Los Angeles County Counsel. LA County Brings Antitrust Suit Against Fire Truck Companies
5
Los Angeles County Counsel. Filed Complaint – Fire Truck Antitrust Litigation
6
Investing.com. REV Group Sees $127.6 Million in Stock Sold by American Industrial Partners
7
U.S. Senate. Testimony of Basel Musharbash Before the Senate Subcommittee
8
U.S. Senate. Sens. Banks, Warren Probe Harms of Private Equity in Fire Truck Manufacturing
9
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. MDL-3179 Transfer Order
10
Hagens Berman. Firetruck Pricing Antitrust
11
PACER Monitor. City of Milwaukee v. Oshkosh Corporation
12
FRSCO. Fire Apparatus Antitrust Litigation Summary
13
Texas Attorney General. Attorney General Ken Paxton Investigates Firetruck Manufacturers
14
IAFF. Kelly Warns Senate Apparatus Monopoly Is Jeopardizing Public Safety
15
IAFF. IAFF Calls for Federal Investigation Into Soaring Apparatus Prices
16
Fire Rescue 1. Apparatus Manufacturers on Defense at Senate Hearing
17
IAFF. Fire Apparatus Crisis Sparks Investigations, Lawsuits Over Soaring Prices and Delays