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 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,

John Deere's controversial practice that requires farmers to use its dealer network for repairs draws a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission

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 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 Federal Trade Commission has sued the tractor manufacturer John Deere. The organization alleges “unfair” practices, high repair costs and an inability for regular consumers to repair devices on their own.