The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit againstDeere’s planned purchase of Monsanto’s Precision Plantingbusiness.

The lawsuit, filed in a Chicago court, said the deal would removecompetition and raise costs for farmers, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Deere, which is the world’s largest maker of agriculturalmachinery, agreed to buy the unit from Monsanto in November. Theterms of the deal were not disclosed at the time, but the lawsuitsaid Deere agreed to pay $190 million for the Monsanto unit.

Precision Planting would give farmers and Deere’s equipmentreal-time planting data through Monsanto’s FieldView app.

The “DOJ’s allegations about the competitive impacts of thetransaction are misguided and the companies intend to defend thetransaction vigorously against those allegations,” Deere said ina joint statement with The Climate Corporation, which entered adata-connectivity agreement in March.

“Competition in precision agriculture is strong and growing inall of these channels as companies around the world continuedeveloping new technologies.”

Shares of both companies fell by about 2% to session lows intrading. Shares of other agricultural companies including DowChemical, DuPont, and Syngenta also slipped on the news.

Business Insider has reached out to Monsanto for comment.

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