today, usa The Federal Trade Commission has accused Deere & Co., the agricultural equipment maker of the iconic green John Deere tractors, harvesters and lawn mowers, of refusing to allow customers to repair their own machines for years. A lawsuit was filed on the basis of the denial.
“Farmers rely on farm machinery to make a living and feed their families,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement accompanying the full complaint. “Unreasonable repair restrictions can cause farmers to face tight planting seasons and unnecessary delays in harvest seasons.”
The FTC's main complaints here center on software issues. Deere has limits on operational software. This means that certain features and adjustments on the tractor can only be unlocked by a mechanic who has the appropriate digital key. Because Deere licenses these keys only to authorized dealers, farmers are often unable to take their tractors to a more convenient third-party repair shop or resolve the issue themselves. The lawsuit requires John Deere to end its practice of limiting the repair capabilities available to customers and make them available to customers other than authorized dealers.
Kyle Wiens, CEO of repair advocacy retailer iFixit and occasional contributor to WIRED, first wrote about John Deere's repair-reluctance strategy in 2015. In an interview today, he talked about how frustrated farmers get when trying to solve a problem. , just encounter Deer's policy.
“If something goes wrong and you’re 10 minutes away from a store, it’s no big deal,” Wiens says. “For most farmers across the country, if it takes three hours to get to the store, that’s a big problem.”
Another difficulty is that U.S. copyright protection prevents anyone other than John Deere from creating software that counters the restrictions the company has placed on its platform. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 provides that people cannot legally challenge technological measures that fall under that protection. John Deere equipment is subject to its copyright policy.
“Not only are they anti-competitive, it's literally illegal to compete with them,” Wiens says.
Deer in the headlights
Wiens said despite a decade of backlash against John Deere from farmers and repairability advocates, customers using the company's machines haven't benefited much from the debate. said.
“Things haven't gotten any better for farmers,” Wiens said. “Despite years of agitation over the right to repair, nothing has changed for farmers on the ground.”
He thinks this case against Deere will be different.
“This has to do that,” Wiens says. “The FTC is not going to settle until John Deere makes its software available. This is a step in the right direction.”
Deere's reluctance to make its products more available has angered many customers and even garnered bipartisan support in Congress for agricultural remediation. The FTC also alleges that John Deere also violated a law passed by the Colorado government in 2023 that requires farm equipment sold in the state to have access to user-operable software. There is.
