The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a suit against John Deere, accusing it of “unfair” practices that force farmers to pay higher-than-average repair costs. The federal organization, along with attorneys general for Illinois and Minnesota,

The lawsuit comes after years of the equipment manufacturer locking farmers out of making basic repairs to their equipment.

John Deere’s “unfair” practices raised repair costs for farmers and kept them from being able to make repairs on tractors and other equipment they own, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges in a new lawsuit.

The suit alleges that Deere tried to increase the cost of repairing its equipment while also forcing customers to rely on Deere-approved dealers to make the repairs.

The Federal Trade Commission sued Deere, alleging the tractor maker limits farmers’ ability to repair their own equipment, giving Deere an illegal monopoly on repair services. The FTC’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Chicago federal court,

The sign outside a John Deere dealer is seen in Denver May 14, 2015. A weak global agriculture sector weighed heavily on quarterly results posted by Deere & Co on May 22, 2015, but earnings still topped expectations,

The lawsuit against the maker of John Deere tractors represents a final push in the Biden administration’s broader efforts to make repairs less costly for consumers.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has prepared a lawsuit against Deere & Co alleging the company's agricultural equipment repair practices violate competition laws, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday,