Aerospace giant RTX’s (RTX.N), opens new tab Pratt & Whitney Canada unit is facing a $150 million U.S. lawsuit for allegedly trying to stifle competition from companies selling used engines and parts for regional commercial aircraft, freight operations and other applications.
Universal Turbine Parts LLC filed the lawsuit, opens new tab on Friday in Philadelphia federal court against Pratt, alleging the company blocks rivals from obtaining its used PT6 and PW100 turboprop engines to sell to aircraft operators and other purchasers.Alabama-based Universal Turbine Parts (UTP) is a supplier of aftermarket aircraft engines and engine parts and competes with Pratt, the world’s largest turboprop aircraft engine maker.
UTP accused Pratt of violating U.S. competition law by barring the company’s approved “overhaul facilities” from supplying UTP and others with engines and parts.
The lawsuit also alleged Pratt was buying up used parts and engines at “non-economic prices” to deny access to others.Pratt’s multi-faceted scheme encompasses a veritable smorgasbord of antitrust offenses,” the lawsuit said.
Pratt and RTX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday, and neither did the plaintiff’s attorneys at law firms White & Case and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Pratt has produced more than 64,000 PT6 engines and 8,000 PW100 engines, according to the lawsuit, which called them the “the largest installed base of aircraft engines within the United States and the world.”UTP was founded in 1993 and said it is one of about ten independent “used serviceable material” supplier companies in the United States focused on the PT6 and PW100 engines.
The lawsuit said Pratt in 2016 as part of a potential sale of UTP’s business “gained access to highly sensitive UTP information” and could see “suppliers like UTP were taking sales from Pratt.”
Pratt’s alleged anti-competitive actions mean “decreased choice for aircraft operators and other purchasers of aircraft engines, and higher prices as Pratt becomes the only remaining option,” the lawsuit said.The case is Universal Turbine Parts LLC v. Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 2:24-cv-02021
For Universal Turbine Parts: Robert Milne and Bryan Gant of White & Case; Daniel Brockett and Jeremy Anderson of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan; and Joseph Kohn of Kohn, Swift & Graf.
