Germany's armed forces, state rail operator Deutsche Bahn and around 40 companies on Wednesday said they were taking joint legal action to seek damages from truckmakers who engaged in years of price fixing.

The lawsuit comes after the European Commission last year slapped a record fine of nearly three billion euros ($3.5 billion) on a "truck cartel" involving Europe's five biggest truckmakers -- Daimler, DAF, Iveco, MAN and Volvo/Renault.

They were found to have negotiated in secret to fix prices for 14 years, as well as dodging stricter anti-pollution rules.

"The illegal price fixing has caused enormous damage to our company and to the other parties concerned," said Deutsche Bahn board member Ulrich Weber in a statement.

Deutsche Bahn said the suit had been filed with a Munich court and that the plaintiffs had bundled their claims for greater efficiency, Germany's closest legal equivalent to a class action lawsuit.

The rail operator said the claim covered some 35,000 trucks bought by the plaintiffs at a total cost of some two billion euros while the cartel was active, from 1997 to 2011.

Experts are still working to determine the exact amount in damages sought, added Deutsche Bahn, which will be acting as the lead claimant.

The rail giant, which owns the logistics subsidiary DB Schenker, said it was "absolutely determined to get full compensation from the members of the cartel".

Katrin Suder, secretary of state at Germany's defence ministry, said the army had a duty to seek compensation.

"We are obliged to verify and enforce any potential claims," she said in the same statement.

"After all, this is about the taxpayer's money."

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