A Bay Area city is joining at least nineteen other municipalities from multiple states in suing private equity firms for allegedly cornering the fire truck manufacturing industry and using their market control to shut down factories, create artificial scarcity, and dramatically hike prices for vital emergency-service machinery.

On May 21, the City of Emeryville, a mid-sized city near San Francisco, filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of California over the matter against three private equity–backed companies that together have come to control roughly 70 percent of the fire truck manufacturing industry: the REV Group and its former parent company American Industrial Partners, the Oshkosh Corporation and its subsidiaries, and Boise Mobile Equipment, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

“Through their illegal schemes, Defendants have reaped extraordinary profits on the backs of fire departments, taxpayers, cities, and counties,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants have shut down plants, substantially increased prices, and severely extended delivery timelines.”