Dive Brief:
- Deere & Co. last week filed an answer to the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit alleging the tractor manufacturer holds a monopoly over its repair services, unfairly drives up costs and restricts farmers from fixing their equipment in a timely manner.
- Attorneys defended the John Deere maker in Illinois federal court, taking the original 37-page complaint apart piece by piece with answers for nearly every paragraph, repeatedly denying allegations that its “business practices are unlawful.”
- Deere representatives also sought dismissal of the FTC’s lawsuit, which was filed in Jan. 15 with attorneys general from Illinois and Minnesota. Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin have since joined the suit.
Dive Insight:
The issue over equipment repair practices has been building for years, with technological advancements that companies say are designed to make consumers’ lives easier actually creating headaches for those looking to fix their cars, tractors or smartphones.
As more proprietary technologies and software become embedded in equipment, manufacturers are placing more restrictions on where repairs can be made. In the case of Deere, the company has made it so only authorized dealers have the service tools to fully repair the onboard central computers on its tractors.
While Deere offers a different repair tool to customers and independent repair shops, the FTC claims that version is inferior to the one available to authorized dealers, saying the tool is allegedly incapable of doing all repairs on Deere equipment.
This has not only limited where farmers can go to fix their equipment, but is anticompetitive for independent repair shops and makes consumers susceptible to unfairly inflated costs, according to the complaint.
In Deere’s answer to the lawsuit, filed March 17, the company acknowledged the existence of both service tools, but denied that its business practices are “unlawful or that it has violated any law.”
Attorneys admitted that it developed a proprietary service tool for its tractors, but denied that other options were functionally inferior.
The company later admitted in the complaint response that its dealer tool has “particular uses and characteristics that differentiate it from other electronic repair tools,” including its customer tool, aptly named Customer Service Advisor.
Attorneys general from Illinois and other states have urged Congress to pass bills addressing so-called right-to-repair issues, but lawmakers’ efforts have yet to make it out of committee hearings. In 2023, Colorado became the first state to enact a “right to repair” law specifically for farmers, AP reported.
A federal Repair Act addressing right-to-repair issues in the automobile industry was introduced in Congress on Feb. 25, with bipartisan support from 21 House representatives. It was referred to an energy and commerce committee for further consideration.
An agriculture-related version has not been introduced yet for this session. The Deere case remains ongoing.
