HVAC Equipment Antitrust Litigation
Background
HVAC Equipment regulates indoor environments by providing thermal comfort, managing humidity, and improving air quality in residential and commercial buildings. It functions by heating, cooling, and circulating air, often using furnaces for heat, air conditioners for cooling, and ductwork to distribute air through a space. HVAC Equipment is both necessary and expensive, costing thousands of dollars per system.
Since the beginning in January 2020, the price of HVAC Equipment has soared, far exceeding price increases for other home appliances or the general consumer price index. The lawsuit alleges that beginning in January 2020, the largest HVAC Equipment manufacturers in the United States began conspiring to continuously and artificially increase the price consumers and businesses pay for HVAC Equipment. The lawsuit names Bosch, Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Daikin, Rheem, and AAON as Defendants, who are manufacturers that control over 90% of the market for HVAC Equipment in the United States. These Defendants are alleged to have driven HVAC Equipment prices to historic levels through a series of frequent and repeated secret meetings, information sharing, communications, and public signaling.
The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants used two key organizations to facilitate their conspiracy. First, they used the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, a trade association for the HVAC industry, to implement extensive sharing of information available only to AHRI members who also agreed to share their own data with their competitors. Second, they used a niche HVAC industry publication, Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, to each announce the price increases to and provide commentary on their pricing and supply plans.
Although these Defendants offered many excuses for the conspiracy, such as cost increases from COVID-19, updated efficiency standards, and the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons mandates by the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, the lawsuit alleges that these were pretextual justifications, unsupported by the actual data. Indeed, as one executive at Lennox recently bragged, “[t]he industry’s generally been disciplined for the past several years . . . . [W]e’re gonna continue to increase our pricing to maintain our margins. I think others have generally been as well. You know, we, as an industry, have realized that . . . pricing . . . taking it away, does not win market share.”
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on March 20, 2026, and is captioned Berg v. Robert Bosch, LLC, et al., No. 2:26-cv-10949. It has been assigned to the Honorable Susan K. DeClercq.
Did you purchase HVAC Equipment for your home or business in the last six years?
If you purchased HVAC Equipment for your home or business since 2020, please contact us.
View the Class Action Complaint (PDF)
Complaint – Berg v. Robert Bosch, LLC, et al. (PDF)
CONTACT
If you would like to discuss your legal options, please contact Brian Clark, Kyle Pozan, or Steve Teti