Deere Must Face Right-to-Repair Lawsuit

June 12, 2025:

A court ruling determined that agricultural equipment manufacturer John Deere must face a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission, which accuses the company of forcing farmers to use its authorized dealer network. A judge ruled that drove up farmers’ costs for repairs and parts. A U.S. District Court Judge in Rockford, Illinois, rejected Deere’s effort, for now, to end the lawsuit, which was filed at the end of President Joe Biden’s administration in January.

“The suit alleges John Deere is violating federal antitrust law by controlling too tightly where and how farmers can get their equipment repaired, allowing the company to charge artificially higher prices,” a Reuters report said. “The FTC was joined in its lawsuit by Michigan, Wisconsin, and three other states.”

Right-to-repair advocates say the digitization of agriculture equipment, with its various computers, has made self-repair almost impossible, forcing farmers to depend on the manufacturer.

National Farmers Union (NFU) proudly supports the lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorneys general of Minnesota and Illinois against John Deere & Co., alleging the company’s repair restrictions violate competition laws. NFU filed a formal complaint with the FTC and has long been at the forefront of the fight for farmers’ right to repair.

“NFU filed the formal complaint with the FTC to uphold farmers’ basic economic right to repair their own equipment. Today’s lawsuits mark a key victory in this fight for family farmers and ranchers, recognizing that monopolies should not stop farmers from being able to repair their own equipment,” said NFU President Rob Larew. “When we prevail, farmers will have the power and freedom to fix their equipment faster and at a lower cost. We commend the FTC on this decisive step to safeguard farmers’ rights.”

For years, NFU has championed farmers’ rights to access the tools, information and software necessary to repair their own machinery. John Deere’s repair policies block farmers from fixing their own equipment and force them to rely on a limited number of dealers. This had led to exorbitant costs and significant operational delays during critical planting and harvesting periods. A 2023 study by the US Public Interest Research Group found that U.S. farmers could save as much as $1.2 billion a year if manufacturers like John Deere stopped imposing repair restrictions.

JANUARY 16, 2025:

The Federal Trade Commission, along with the Illinois and Minnesota Attorneys General, sued agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere & Company this week (Jan. 15, 2025) over its use of unfair practices that have driven up equipment repair costs for farmers while also depriving farmers of the ability to make timely repairs on critical farming equipment, including tractors.

The FTC’s complaint alleges that, for decades, Deere’s unlawful practices have limited the ability of farmers and independent repair providers to repair Deere equipment, forcing farmers to instead rely on Deere’s network of authorized dealers for necessary repairs. This unfair steering practice has boosted Deere’s multi-billion-dollar profits on agricultural equipment and parts, growing its repair parts business while burdening farmers with higher repair costs, the FTC’s complaint alleges.

“Illegal repair restrictions can be devastating for farmers, who rely on affordable and timely repairs to harvest their crops and earn their income,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC’s action today seeks to ensure that farmers across America are free to repair their own equipment or use repair shops of their choice—lowering costs, preventing ruinous delays, and promoting fair competition for independent repair shops.”

Durable, reliable, and easily repairable agricultural equipment is critical to American farmers. 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.

The only fully functional software repair tool capable of performing all repairs on Deere equipment is produced by Deere. Deere makes this tool available only to Deere’s authorized dealers, forcing farmers to solely rely on more expensive authorized dealers for critical repairs. By creating these restrictions, Deere has unlawfully acquired and maintained monopoly power in the market for certain repair services for Deere agricultural equipment, according to the FTC’s complaint.

Deere’s Monopoly Power 

Historically, farmers have sought to repair their own equipment or relied on local, independent repair providers, which have offered various advantages over authorized Deere dealers, including lower costs, better reliability, and faster repair times.

Yet, with the increasing computerization of Deere’s equipment over the past few decades, farmers must now rely on Deere’s interactive software tool called Service ADVISOR, which Deere makes available only to its authorized dealers, the FTC’s complaint states.

An inferior repair tool exists, called Customer Service ADVISOR, but it is incapable of doing all repairs on Deere agriculture equipment. Deere also fails to make available to generic repair tool developers the information necessary to develop a fully functional repair tool, as equipment manufacturers in the automotive and trucking industries do.

Through its limited distribution of its repair tools, Deere has been able to control and limit who can repair its agricultural equipment, allowing Deere to maintain a 100% market share and charge higher prices, via its network of authorized dealers, for all repairs that require the fully functional tool.

Deere’s repair restrictions allow it to reap additional profits through parts sales, as its authorized network of dealers almost always use expensive Deere-branded parts in their repairs in lieu of generic parts.

Despite increasing public pressure to give farmers the right to repair their own equipment, including state legislative action, Deere continues to unlawfully withhold a fully functional repair tool from equipment owners. Deere’s restrictions deprive farmers of the use of their own repair labor, deny them access to their preferred repair service providers, prevent them from more reliably planting, spraying, or harvesting crops on a schedule that would allow them to maximize yield, and force them to spend more on repair and parts, the FTC’s complaint states.

The FTC’s lawsuit seeks to stop Deere’s anticompetitive conduct by ordering, among other remedies, that Deere make available to owners of Deere large tractors and combines, as well as independent repair providers, access to its fully functional Service ADVISOR repair tool and any other repair resources available to authorized dealers.

The Commission vote to authorize staff to file for a permanent injunction and other equitable relief in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois was 3-2, with Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson dissenting. Chair Lina M. Khan issued a statement. Commissioner Ferguson issued a dissenting statement joined by Commissioner Melissa Holyoak.

NOTE: The Commission issues a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest.