Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing farm equipment maker John Deere, accusing the company of forcing farmers to use its dealers to repair equipment.

The Federal Trade Commission is accusing Deere & Co. of unfairly monopolizing the farm-equipment repair market.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing iconic tractor manufacturer John Deere over farmers’ rights to repair their own machines. Citing the frustration of farmers who are forced to rely on authorized dealers to fix broken-down tractors,

Willie Cade is the director of the Theo Brown Society, named after his late grandfather, an engineer and former John Deere board member. Cade has been following the right-to-repair issue for the last eight years.

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 (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,

John Deere, the agricultural equipment giant, is currently embroiled in a legal battle against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the states of Illinois and Minnesota. The company is accused of unfair practices that have increased repair costs for farmers and restricted their ability to perform timely repairs on vital machinery such as tractors.