FTC reaches settlement with Deere in ‘right to repair’ suit

Advocates for farmers’ right to repair their own equipment without having to rely on expensive repairs from company-certified technicians gained a win last week as several states and the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement in an antitrust lawsuit against Deere & Company, which builds and sells the popular John Deere line of farm equipment.

The settlement requires the company to give everyone, “the same equipment repair resources, including applicable software capabilities, that it currently provides to authorized Deere dealers.”

Some state agricultural organizations applauded the move from the FTC.

“The announcement made by the FTC establishing the farmer’s right-to-repair their own equipment is monumental,” Montana Farmers Union president President Walter Schweitzer said in a press release. “Farmers Union has been advocating for over a decade to require equipment manufacturers to provide the necessary tools to diagnose and repair their own equipment. The FTC rules now require John Deere to provide these tools at a reasonable cost.”

The Montana Farmers Union has pushed for right-to-repair legislation at the state legislature  each of the last three sessions, it said in a release.

The initial complaint, which was filed by several midwestern states, Arizona, and the FTC, alleges the company’s “increasingly sophisticated” equipment requires a software tool only available to authorized Deere dealers.

“By making this tool available only to Deere dealers, Deere forces farmers to turn to Deere dealers for critical repairs rather than complete the repairs themselves or choose an (independent repair provider) that may be cheaper, closer, faster, or more trusted,” the complaint states.

With rises in fertilizer prices and other impacts of inflation, costs have been increasing for agricultural providers across the country. According to a U.S. PIRG Education Fund study, producers being able to repair their own equipment could save American farmers billions of dollars in repair costs.

“Farmers and independent mechanics cannot access the software they need to comprehensively diagnose and troubleshoot tractors, nor can they install the embedded software necessary to electronically pair replacement parts to a machine—a process necessary to complete many repairs,” the study reads.