City of Ann Arbor Files Antitrust Class Action Against Fire Truck Manufacturers

The City of Ann Arbor, Michigan has joined a growing number of municipalities who have filed suit against the nation’s largest fire apparatus manufacturers, accusing them of engaging in a long-running conspiracy to suppress production and inflate the prices of fire trucks sold in the United States.

Ann Arbor filed suit on December 16, 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin naming Oshkosh Corporation (including Pierce Manufacturing), REV Group, Rosenbauer America, and the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA) as defendants. The city seeks to represent municipalities and fire departments nationwide that purchased fire trucks during the alleged conspiracy period. 

According to the complaint, the alleged conspiracy dates back to at least January 1, 2016, and continues to the present. Ann Arbor contends that the defendants—who collectively control between 70 and 80 percent of the U.S. fire truck market—agreed to limit production capacity, tolerate growing delivery backlogs, and coordinate pricing practices that resulted in dramatic price increases across all types of fire apparatus.

The lawsuit alleges that fire truck prices have roughly doubled over the past decade. A pumper that cost $500,000 in the mid-2010s is now alleged to cost $1 million or more, while ladder trucks that once sold for under $1 million now exceed $2 million. Ann Arbor states that its most recent fire apparatus purchase came in at approximately $2.38 million. At the same time, delivery times allegedly expanded from 12–18 months to as long as four years.

The complaint also focuses on production backlogs. Ann Arbor alleges that despite increased demand—particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic—manufacturers declined to expand production capacity. Instead, backlog figures reportedly surged into the billions of dollars. The city claims these delays have forced departments to keep apparatus in service far beyond their expected life span, sometimes exceeding 25 or 30 years.

A central allegation in the lawsuit involves the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association. Ann Arbor claims that FAMA provided the structure through which competing manufacturers exchanged competitively sensitive information, including pricing, sales volume, backlog data, and production capacity. According to the complaint, FAMA’s members-only meetings, data-sharing committees, and quarterly reports allowed manufacturers to monitor one another’s behavior and avoid competing on price or delivery time.

The complaint alleges that FAMA’s Data & Research Committee collected proprietary information from manufacturers and redistributed it only to participating members, excluding fire departments and municipalities from access to the same information. Ann Arbor asserts that leadership roles within FAMA were routinely held by senior executives from the defendant manufacturers, further facilitating coordination.

Ann Arbor details its own purchases as examples of the alleged harm. The city bought apparatus through the Sourcewell cooperative purchasing program, placing orders with authorized dealers of Pierce and E-ONE. One Pierce pumper ordered in 2022 cost approximately $662,000, while a tiller aerial ordered in 2025 exceeded $2.3 million and had not yet been delivered at the time the lawsuit was filed. An E-ONE engine ordered in 2023 for $830,000 also remained undelivered more than two years later.

The lawsuit asserts multiple claims under federal and state antitrust laws, including Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and parallel antitrust statutes in more than 25 states. Ann Arbor seeks treble damages, injunctive relief, and other remedies, and has demanded a jury trial.

This case follows similar litigation filed earlier this year by the City of La Crosse, Wisconsin, which also alleged an industry-wide conspiracy among fire truck manufacturers to raise prices and restrict output. Additional lawsuits and investigations have been reported nationwide, as scrutiny continues to grow over rising apparatus costs, extended delivery timelines, and the consolidation of the fire apparatus manufacturing industry. According to Industrial Equipment News, other suits have been filed by Onalaska, Wisconsin, and fire departments in Pennsylvania, Maine and New York.

Update: By my count, according to my database, there have been at least eight (8) such suits filed as on 12/21/2025:

• La Crosse, WI
• Chelsea, MA
• Augusta ME
• Onalaska, WI
• Philadelphia, PA
• Roseland NJ
• Liberty, MO
• Ann Arbor, MI