John Deere blames politics for FTC lawsuit on farmers’ right to repair

[Simone Del Rosario]

With less than a week before the Biden administration’s time in Washington runs out, regulators sued John Deere over farmers’ right to repair their own equipment.

The Federal Trade Commission, along with Illinois and Minnesota, claim Deere prevents farmers from being able to repair their own equipment or use independent shops. Instead, they say Deere forces owners to use authorized dealers, which increase farmers’ costs while boosting the company’s profits.

Nathan Proctor:

specifically what they say John Deere is doing is that they’ve designed the equipment to require the use of John Deere service advisor, software tool to complete the repairs for a certain number of repairs, and that tool is completely restricted to dealerships

My name is Nathan proctor. I am the senior right to repair campaign director for the PIRG network. PIRG is PIRG stands for Public Interest Research Group, we’re a national nonprofit.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Over the last couple of decades, we’ve seen farming equipment becoming more and more reliant on computers. Equipment owners claim it makes it nearly impossible to diagnose and fix issues on their own.

Nathan Proctor:

If you’re a farmer and your equipment breaks, the only place you can take it where you know they’re going to have all of the necessary parts, tools and information to complete the job is the dealership, and that is by design.

Simone Del Rosario:

Deere called the lawsuit “meritless,” saying, “The complaint is based on flagrant misrepresentations of the facts and fatally flawed legal theories, and it punishes innovation and procompetitive product design.”

Deere says they support customers’ abilities to maintain and repair their own machines. The company announced earlier this week it was launching “additional self-repair capabilities.”

Nathan Proctor:

Deere has been at least for the last six years, has come out with a whole number of partial steps towards, hey, we’ll let you do this configuration now. Hey, we have a new you can buy a manual. It’s a little bit easier to get the manual. But at the end of the day, there are repairs where the only possible way to conduct or repeat or, you know, complete the repair is by plugging in a dealership computer. There is no option.

Simone Del Rosario:

The FTC says Deere’s Production and Precision Agriculture segment, which includes those large tractors and combines, raked in $7 billion in operating profit in 2023.

The agency claims by pushing farmers to authorized dealers, farmers are then sold name-brand replacement parts, which bolster Deere’s profits.

FTC chair Lina Khan says, “Unfair repair restrictions can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during tight planting and harvest windows. In rural communities, the restrictions can sometimes mean that farmers need to drive hours just to get their equipment fixed.”

Nathan Proctor:

Their whole livelihood depends on the ability to operate equipment in a timely way, and when that equipment is only fixable by a dealership. And there’s a lot fewer dealerships now, and they’re consolidating, and everybody in your area is using the same kind of equipment at the same time of year, it creates these huge bottlenecks.

Simone Del Rosario:

The commission voted 3 to 2 to bring the lawsuit, with both Republican commissioners dissenting.

Notably, one of those is Andrew Ferguson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for FTC chair.

Deere seized on comments made by the incoming chair, like, “‘appears to be the result of brazen partisanship,” “lends to the suit the stench of partisan motivation,” and appears “taken in haste to beat President Trump into office.” Ferguson went on to say, “we simply do not have the evidence to file this Complaint with any real confidence of our ultimate chance of success.”

Nathan Proctor:

There wasn’t a single substantive objection he made to the actual facts of the case. And in fact, he even said, you know, maybe more research needs to be done, but maybe that’ll happen in the course of the lawsuit, which obviously implies that he’s expecting this to continue to move forward.

Simone Del Rosario:

While Deere continues to contend the FTC is relying on “inaccurate information and assumptions,” Proctor says there’s a simple solution to the accusations Deere faces.

Nathan Proctor:

There’s a software tool that you need to complete the full range of repairs. That’s the software tool that should be available to independent mechanics and to farmers.

Simone Del Rosario:

Right to repair extends beyond tractors and big machinery. Advocates in the space have called for consumer tech manufacturers, like Apple, to make it easier to repair your devices. And in 2022, the FTC took action against Harley-Davidson and Weber grills. Proctor says the movement has made significant strides in the past seven years. For SAN, I’m SDR.