In re Construction Equipment Rental Antitrust Litigation

Berger Montague PC and DiCello Levitt LLP serve as Co-Lead Counsel in a nationwide antitrust multidistrict litigation challenging a cartel that has inflated construction equipment rental prices across the United States. The case alleges that the largest rental companies—including United Rentals, Sunbelt Rentals, HERC Rentals, H&E Equipment, and Sunstate Equipment—conspired through a shared pricing and data platform operated by Rouse to fix, raise, and maintain rental prices in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.

Once a competitive and fragmented industry, the U.S. construction equipment rental market has become highly concentrated. Plaintiffs allege that the dominant rental companies replaced independent price competition with coordinated pricing by pooling their most sensitive transaction, utilization, and fleet data through Rouse. That shared system generates standardized market information that flows directly into the companies’ pricing and quoting tools, allowing competitors to align rates and enforce industry-wide pricing discipline. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, rental prices for essential construction equipment used in housing, commercial development, and public infrastructure—including aerial lifts (e.g., boom lifts, scissor lifts, forklifts, and telehandlers), excavators, dozers, skid steers, compaction machines, lighting towers, generators, backhoes, loaders, and others—have been artificially inflated nationwide, forcing businesses to pay more to complete projects across the country.

Berger Montague has been involved in the case from the outset—filing the first complaint in April 2025, coordinating with counsel nationwide, and presenting oral argument before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which centralized the litigation before Federal District Judge Sara L. Ellis in Chicago. The firm also successfully briefed and argued the leadership motion that resulted in its appointment as Co-Lead Counsel, and it continues to lead the case on behalf of the proposed class.

Read more about the case:

• Equipment Rental Industry Facing Algorithmic Pricing Claims, Law360 (April 23, 2025). Read more here.
• Lawsuit accuses United Rentals, other construction equipment firms of price-fixing, Reuters (April 2, 2025). Read more here.
• Antitrust Lawsuit Targets Cartel Driving Up Construction Equipment Rental Prices, Berger Montague (April 2, 2025). Read more here.

Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. With more than $2.4 billion in 2025 post-trial judgments alone, the Firm is a leader in the fields of complex litigation, antitrust, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For over 55 years, Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago; Malvern, PA; Minneapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto, Canada; Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.