US authority sues John Deere over right to repair

The US trade regulator is taking legal action against agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere for using monopolistic practices to undermine the right to repair of US farmers. Modern agricultural machinery is increasingly digitized and requires appropriate software tools to fix problems. However, John Deere only makes these available to authorized dealers, who charge higher prices than local workshops for repairs and spare parts. This violates competition law.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) launched an investigation last fall to investigate John Deere's right to repair. The US trade regulator wanted to find out whether the world's largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery “engaged in or is engaging in unfair, deceptive, anticompetitive, collusive, coercive, predatory, exploitative, or exclusionary acts or practices in commerce by repairing agricultural equipment”. This would constitute a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, which – similar to the Unfair Competition Act (UWG) in this country – prohibits relevant practices.

Farmers disadvantaged by software repair tools

Now the FTC has apparently come to the conclusion that the agricultural machinery manufacturer is indeed using unfair practices to keep repair costs high and deprive farmers of the right to carry out repairs themselves or have them carried out by local workshops. According to the authorities, the latter often work faster and more cheaply. Together with attorneys general from the US states of Illinois and Minnesota, the FTC has therefore now filed a lawsuit against John Deere.

“Illegal repair restrictions can be devastating to farmers who depend on affordable and timely repairs to harvest their crops and earn an income,” said FTC Chairwoman Lina M. Khan. “Today's action by the FTC is designed to ensure that farmers across America can repair their equipment themselves or use repair shops of their choice – thereby lowering costs, avoiding ruinous delays, and promoting fair competition for independent repair shops.”

According to the FTC, only John Deere itself offers a “fully functional software repair tool that can perform all repairs”. However, the company only makes this so-called “Service ADVISOR” available to authorized dealers and thus excludes its repairs or local workshops. Although there is a repair tool called “Customer Service ADVISOR”, it cannot carry out all repairs. The FTC also criticizes the fact that the company does not provide information to develop its own repair tools for John Deere agricultural machinery, as other manufacturers in the automotive and truck industry do.

John Deere only for safe repair, criticism also from FTC

According to its statements, the company itself supports the right to repair, but emphasizes “safe” repairs. The company therefore explicitly does not support its modifications to agricultural machinery. Almost ten years ago, John Deere already took a stand against “tractor modding”, at that time to protect intellectual property. Meanwhile, however, resourceful farmers have also modified their tractors, combine harvesters etc. for repairs and to adapt them to their needs without going to an official dealer. However, this carries the risk of the company remotely blocking the digital agricultural machinery, as has already happened following a theft from Ukraine.

However, there is also criticism of John Deere's complaint within the FTC. One member of the commission criticized the timing of the complaint, shortly before the change of government in the USA. This smacks of political maneuvering. In addition, the investigation was shortened due to the Democratic majority on the Commission and should have been continued, as the “repair market is extremely complicated”. Furthermore, there are negotiations between the authority and the company that would have prevented a lawsuit at the taxpayer's expense if they had been successful.

(fds)