Oh, Deere! FTC sues tractor maker, alleging decades of monopolized repairs

Updated America's top consumer watchdog has sued tractor maker John Deere for monopolizing tech repair services for its machinery, though whether the lawsuit will survive the pending presidential transition remains to be seen. 

With just days until Biden leaves office, and the Democrat-led FTC cedes control to Republicans under President-elect Trump, the federal regulator has decided to file suit against Deere over what it said is decades of unlawful practices that have driven up repair costs and caused losses for farmers left without the ability to repair equipment in a timely manner. The FTC was joined in filing the complaint by the states of Minnesota and Illinois; the suit was filed in the latter. 

"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," the FTC said in a statement. "This unfair steering practice has boosted Deere's multi-billion-dollar profits on agricultural equipment and parts." 

The specifics of the complaint [PDF] will look familiar to anyone who has followed the years-long saga of repairability groups, farmers, and the federal government to force Deere to open its tractors, combines, and other farm equipment to repair by third parties and device owners. 

At the core of the suit is an issue raised by a dozen farm labor, repair, and advocacy groups in 2022, who told the FTC that Deere provided half-baked software to independent repair providers (IRPs) and equipment owners with only some of the capabilities of its more full-featured internal repair tool. 

The groups complained that, rather than provide them with access to Deere's Service Advisor software, which is only available to authorized dealers, it instead created a program called the Customer Service Advisor. That code, the groups said, still costs thousands of dollars without providing all the necessary repair information needed to enable a fix. Thus folks may well be forced to take their tractors and whatnot – which are basically computers on wheels – to authorized dealers for an expensive tune-up, when a cheaper repair could have been possible.

The FTC suit highlights the Service Advisor and Customer Service Advisor issue as a key example, alleging that Deere uses these tools to "maintain a 100 percent market share and charge supracompetitive prices for restricted repairs." 

Deere was also called out in the lawsuit for allegedly violating the repairability memorandum-of-understanding it signed with the American Farm Bureau Federation in 2023 to provide farmers and third-party repair shops with necessary repairability software (ie, Service Advisor). 

Deere did not make a fully functional repair tool available to farmers

"Deere did not make a fully functional repair tool available to farmers or IRPs, claiming the MOU required only the profusion of the degraded Customer Service Advisor tool," the suit alleges. "Deere invoked its release of Customer Service Advisor and its MOU with the Farm Bureau to stymie state 'right-to-repair' legislation that would otherwise have required Deere to make fully functional repair tools available."

Those same concerns were raised by US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) last October in a letter to John Deere asking it to explain why it didn't appear to be meeting its right-to-repair obligations under the MOU. 

The FTC suit, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, accuses Deere of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Section 5 of the FTC Act, and state antitrust laws in Illinois and Minnesota. The watchdog and attorneys general of both states are asking the court to force Deere to release the full-function Service Advisor software to owners and IRPs along with other relief. 

Will the lawsuit survive into the new administration?

In a statement issued along with the announcement of the lawsuit, outgoing FTC chair Lina Khan expressed disappointment that the two Republican members of the regulator, Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, voted against the lawsuit on what she described as political grounds that would delay the relief farmers are owed. 

"Unlawful repair restrictions should continue to be a key area of focus" for the FTC, Khan said of the watchdog under Trump. 

In their dissenting statement, Ferguson, who has been tapped to head the FTC once Trump takes office next week, and Holyoak called the lawsuit a hasty decision made "in order to secure another triumphant press release on the Democrats' way out the door," suggesting Ferguson might not support its continuation once he takes Khan's gavel. 

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"Today's action appears to be one taken in haste to beat President Trump into office, and lends to the suit the stench of partisan motivation," Ferguson wrote in the letter, which Holyoak joined. "The outgoing Democratic majority's decision to bring suit mere days before the presidential inauguration does [the FTC] a disservice … cases with bipartisan support are stronger." 

Ferguson also dissented because he claimed the timing of the suit "shortchanges an ongoing investigation," and called it "deeply imprudent" because the parties to the suit are in active negotiation over a fix that "could provide meaningful relief to America's farmers." 

Nathan Proctor, senior right-to-repair campaign director at the Public Interest Research Group, or PIRG - one of the organizations involved in the 2022 complaint central to the FTC lawsuit - told The Register he doesn't interpret Ferguson's dissent as opposition to the lawsuit itself, but he believes it's more about the suit's timing. 

PIRG supports the suit and states it "will help farmers, and everyone else who believes people should be able to fix their stuff." Proctor added that the first Trump administration's FTC supported the right to repair, and that the matter has been supported by both Democrats and Republicans for years. 

"We know that these issues are strongly supported by Trump's voting base," Proctor told us in an emailed statement. "I see no reason why the FTC wouldn't continue this vital work as leadership shifts, considering that historical support from Trump appointees."

John Deere did not respond to questions for this story. ®

Updated to add at 0100 UTC, January 16

The tractor maker has been in touch with some thoughts, mainly that it will challenge the FTC's legal action.

"This lawsuit, filed on the eve of a change in administration, ignores the company’s long-standing commitment to customer self-repair and the consistent progress and innovation we have made over time," spokespeople for the manufacturer said.

"The complaint is based on flagrant misrepresentations of the facts and fatally flawed legal theories, and it punishes innovation and pro-competitive product design.

"John Deere will vigorously defend itself against this baseless lawsuit."

The machinery maker pointed to, among other things, a mobile app it released that "allows you to manage, maintain and keep your equipment running," and its John Deere Operations Center as evidence of its commitment to support right-to-repair.