City of San Diego suing companies that supply fire trucks, joining county efforts

The city of San Diego is suing several companies it says took over the market for fire trucks, leading to exorbitantly inflated prices for the vehicles and their parts.

Defendants include REV Group, Oshkosh Corporation and its subsidiary Pierce Manufacturing, Boise Mobile Equipment and private-equity firm American Industrial Partners.

The complaint filed Wednesday in San Diego federal court alleges that the defendants acquired a number of smaller fire truck manufacturers, eliminating competition and allowing the companies to overcharge the city by hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit.

The city also said that the companies’ control over the market for chassis and replacement parts has allowed it to charge sometimes as much as four times the fair-market cost for replacement components, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office said in a statement Thursday.

“Fire trucks aren’t nice-to-haves — they’re essential equipment that every community depends on to save lives,” San Diego City Attorney Heather Ferbert. “When corporations exploit that need and illegally corner the market, taxpayers and firefighters pay the price.

The lawsuit seeks civil penalties, damages and restitution for overcharges and other financial injuries, and an injunction prohibiting additional alleged anticompetitive conduct.

“At a time when every dollar matters, we’re taking action to stop these practices, recover overcharges and protect our city’s budget. These companies drove up costs, delayed deliveries for years, and forced cities into overpriced proprietary parts and equipment,” Ferbert added.

“This lawsuit seeks to stop these unlawful practices, restore competition and protect public-safety budgets statewide.”

The lawsuit comes a few weeks after a similar complaint was filed in federal court by San Diego County against the same companies.

“Firefighters don’t have a choice — when a truck breaks down, they need a new one,” said San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer in a statement at the time. “For years, fire departments have been paying more and waiting longer.”

She called the lawsuit part of a county strategy to go after “a handful of greedy companies that turned fire trucks into profit cash cows.”

“We’re taking those companies to court to stop the greed that’s endangering lives and get our money back,” Lawson-Remer said.