Chicago Court Allows Antitrust Claims Against Construction Equipment Rental Companies
A federal district court in Chicago has allowed antitrust claims against several construction equipment rental companies and Rouse Services LLC to proceed. The plaintiffs allege that these companies engaged in an unlawful agreement in restraint of trade and information exchange through their use of Rouse Rental Insights (RRI), a benchmarking platform.
The defendants had filed motions to dismiss the claims, but the court denied them except for one parent company, RB Global, Inc. The plaintiffs did not plausibly allege any theory that would keep RB Global in the lawsuit, as there was no facial indication that it participated in or ratified the alleged price-fixing scheme.
The court found that the plaintiffs' allegations were sufficient to put EquipmentShare.com, Home Depot, and Sunstate on notice of their antitrust claims. The plaintiffs also alleged that Rouse facilitated the price-fixing scheme by collecting competitively sensitive information from its clients and providing benchmark reports that included rental rates and fleet utilization information.