MILWAUKEE (CN) - The City of Milwaukee accused three competing manufacturers and a trade association conspired to fix the market for fire trucks across the country in a Thursday lawsuit.

"Defendants' conduct to consolidate the market, charge supra-competitive prices, and backlog delivery of new fire apparatus has diminished the availability of fire trucks, impairing firefighters' ability to respond effectively and leaving the public less protected during fire and other emergencies," the city says in its 84-page class action.

The cost of fire trucks has nearly doubled in the past decade, according to the city, reaching as high as $1 million for a classic engine. The city itself has purchased 23 during that timeframe, some of which it says still have not been delivered.

Thursday's lawsuit in the Western District of Wisconsin goes beyond Milwaukee's 95 square miles, with the city asserting that three competitors in the fire engine manufacturing market entered into an agreement to suppress supply of fire engines and raise prices nationwide.

The city proposes a class including any individual, fire department, municipality and other entity that purchased fire trucks from Oshkosh Corporation, Rev Group Inc., Rosenbauer America LLC and Fire Apparatus Manufacturers' Association from 2016 onward.

The city, represented by Milwaukee-based firm O'Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing, claims the manufacturers took advantage of increasing demand for updated fire fighting equipment and delayed production intentionally to create a false scarcity mindset.

Between 2020 and 2023, REV Group's production backlog jumped from around $1 billion worth of fire department orders to $3.6 billion - a 41% increase, according to the city.

That example is not unique to REV Group. The result, Milwaukee says, is departments waiting years for fire trucks with no end in sight. Even receiving replacement parts has become an impossible quest.

The manufacturers and trade organization - together referred to as a "cartel" in the complaint - also enacted "floating prices" as the backlogs grew, so that a fire truck purchased in 2021 but delivered in 2023 might end up costing far more than was bargained for at the time, according to the city.

To ensure compliance, Milwaukee claims the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers' Association coordinated in-person meetings between the competing companies where they could share sensitive internal information and strategize for future cooperation.

Under normal circumstances, sharing this kind of information could give the competition an advantage, but Milwaukee says, "In a cartel, however, access to this kind of information services as reassurance that cartel members are adhering to the conspiracy."

According to the city, these companies control 70 to 80% of the $3 billion national fire trucks market and are each other's largest competitors. Two are based in Wisconsin, while the third is an Austrian company based in South Dakota.

"As direct competitors, [the] defendants should be competing," the city says. "Instead, they have sought out ways to cooperate."

REV Group and Oshkosh Corp. is embroiled in a similar lawsuit in California, where Los Angeles County sued the pair over price hikes after the pandemic. Oshkosh Corp. told Courthouse News that those claims are without merit.

Milwaukee claims that if fire trucks had increased at the same pace as inflation over the last decade, a pumper truck today would cost around $680,000 compared to the $1 million price tag that departments have come to expect.

As a result, departments are unable to respond to increasing need. The city cited several incidents during which equipment failure led to death and property damage that could have been avoided.

In one case, Chicago fire fighters responded to a house fire which killed four people, including a five-year old. The fire truck stalled, delaying their response time. In other cities, Milwaukee says fire trucks are no longer being used in training so to extend their life span.

The city specifically raised violations of the Sherman Act, several individual state antitrust laws and the Consumer Protection Act. It asked the court to appoint a class representative and permanently block the defendants from any conspiracy or contract involving the artificial price fixing of the fire truck market.

In November 2025, the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously voted to override Milwaukee Mayor Cavelier Johnson's veto of the fire department's budget to update the city's aging firefighting fleet, restoring $8 million to the department.

The parties could not be reached for comment by press time.

Source: Courthouse News Service