Memo

Office of the City Attorney 
 
 
Date:  
August 4, 2026 
To: 
 
Mayor and City Council 
 
From:  
Jim Smith, City Attorney 
Re: 
Fire Apparatus Antitrust Litigation 
 
In 2025, a U.S. Senate subcommittee held a public hearing on the escalating costs and 
extended delivery times of fire apparatuses ordered by public firefighting agencies.  (A recording 
of the hearing may be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMFCRBF4G8E.) 
 
Since then, over forty (40) cities, counties, and fire districts across the country have filed 
lawsuits against the nation’s two largest fire apparatus manufacturers and their affiliates, REV 
Group, LLC and Oshkosh Corporation.  In Arizona, the City of Tucson, the City of Tempe, and 
the Town of Gilbert have filed lawsuits. 
 
The lawsuits assert antitrust and anticompetition claims arising under federal and state 
statutes.  The claims are based on REV Group and Oshkosh Corp. acquiring and merging small 
and large fire apparatus competitors and key companies in the fire apparatus supply chain into 
two dominant companies in the fire apparatus market.  The lawsuits allege this consolidation 
allowed these companies to cut supply, raise prices beyond a reasonable measure of inflation, 
delay deliveries, and restrict competitive options without consequence or competitive pressures.  
They also allege that these manufacturing giants have doubled their profit margins and (in the 
case of REV Group) paid multi-million-dollar cash dividends to investors, while fire 
departments have struggled to obtain fire apparatuses and replacement parts at fair, competitive 
prices and within reasonable timelines necessary to serve their communities. 
 
A lawsuit will allow the City of Mesa to seek compensation for the overcharges on fire 
apparatuses purchased since 2023 due to these alleged anticompetitive practices.