FTC Sues Deere over Right to Repair

Raoul and the coalition are alleging that for decades, Deere’s unlawful practices have limited the ability of farmers and independent mechanics to repair Deere equipment, forcing farmers to instead rely on Deere’s network of authorized dealers for repairs, the release said.

Deere responds to the lawsuit

In a provided statement, Deere alleges that the lawsuit ignores the company’s longstanding commitment to customer self-repair and the consistent progress and innovation they have made over time. The company also stated that the “complaint is based on flagrant misrepresentations of the facts and fatally flawed legal theories, and it punishes innovation and procompetitive design.”

The lawsuit seeks, among other remedies, to require the company make available its Service ADVISOR repair tool to owners of Deere’s large tractors and combines and to independent repair providers.

In a redacted version of the complaint posted by the FTC, the lawsuit says Deere provides its “Full-Function Service ADVISOR” only to Deere dealers, while making its more limited “Customer Service ADVISOR” available to equipment customers, independent mechanics and others.

“With the price of farming equipment continuing to rise, farmers should have increase flexibility to repair and maintain their equipment and not be forced to utilize expensive authorized dealers,” Raoul said.

In a memorandum of understanding between the American Farm Bureau Federation and Deere in January of 2023, Deere said it would provide access for farmers and independent repair facilities to manufacturer’s tools, specialty tools, software, documentation from the manufacturer or an authorized repair facility, per a subscription or sale.

When Deere announced in 2022 that it was making Customer Service ADVISOR available, the company said it supported customers “safely maintaining, diagnosing and repairing their own equipment” and pointed to several tools it made available. However, the company said, it did not support customers modifying embedded software due to various risks.

They allege that the practice is unfair and has boosted Deere’s multibillion-dollar profits on agricultural equipment and parts, allowing the company to expand its repair parts business and burdening farmers with higher repair costs.

Previously, farmers have sought to repair their own equipment or relied on independent repair providers, the release said. Independent repair providers offer advantages over authorized Deere dealers, such as lower costs, better reliability and faster repair times.

“Durable, reliable and easily repairable agricultural equipment is critical to American farmers,” Raoul’s release said. “Yet Deere, which maintains a dominant market share position across the large agricultural equipment market, has made it difficult for farmers to repair their own equipment or turn to local, independent repair providers.”

Denver Caldwell, Deere’s vice president of aftermarket and customer support, said in the company’s statement that the lawsuit is “extremely disappointing” and that the three commissioners of the FTC chose to “file a meritless lawsuit on the eve of the transition to a new administration.”

“Our recent discussions with the Commission have revealed that the agency still lacked basic information about the industry and John Deere’s business practices and confirmed that the agency was instead relying on inaccurate information and assumptions,” Caldwell said.

Parties were engaged in active negotiations over a potential resolution to the investigation when the FTC filed the lawsuit, and as recently as last week, Deere also was still receiving questions from the agency, the company said in the provided statement.

Earlier this week, Deere announced the ability to maintain and repair their machines across agricultural and construction industries that will be integrated into the John Deere Operations Center, according to the provided statement. It will be available to customers and independent repair technicians, which will enable them to reprogram Deere-manufactured electronic controllers.