The Food and Drug Commission (FTC) Investigates John Deere’s Repair-Averse Tackling in the Agribusiness Sector
Deere has restricted access to its software, making it difficult for the owners to diagnose and fix problems themselves, or even have the help of independent mechanics. Instead, farmers have to use authorized dealers, who tend to charge more and may take longer.
They also wrote the FTC did not gather enough evidence to have “any real confidence of our ultimate chance of success” in litigation — and said the agency was also in ongoing active negotiations for a settlement with Deere.
When the FTC is under GOP control, it’s uncertain how the case will proceed. The agency’s two Republican commissioners had voted against suing Deere; one of them, Andrew Ferguson, is Trump’s pick to become the new FTC chair.
The lawsuit accuses Deere of withholding access to its technology and best repair tools and of maintaining monopoly power over many repairs. Deere also reaps additional profits from selling parts, the complaint alleges, as authorized dealers tend to sell pricey Deere-branded parts for their repairs rather than generic alternatives.
“Unfair repair restrictions can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during tight planting and harvest windows,” FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote in a statement. Farmers need to drive hours to get their equipment fixed when there are restrictions in rural communities. For those who have long fixed their own equipment, these artificial restrictions can seem especially inefficient, with tractors needlessly sitting idle as farmers and independent mechanics are held back from using their skill and talent.”
The lawsuit — filed on Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission along with Illinois and Minnesota — escalates a long-running battle over farmers’ right to repair their own agricultural equipment and parts.
Deere has angered many of its customers by not making its products more accessible, and has even gotten generally bipartisan congressional support for reparability in the agricultural space. The FTC alleges John Deere also violated legislation passed by the Colorado state government in 2023 that requires farm equipment sold in the state to make operational software accessible to users.
The thing that does it has to be this one. “The FTC is not going to settle until John Deere makes the software available. This is a step in the right direction.”
Kyle was the author of a review about John Deere and his repair-averse tactics for WIRED. He said in an interview today that farmers get frustrated when they attempt to fix something that went wrong and end up getting into Deere’s policy.