Today, U.S. The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against farm equipment maker Deere & Co. — makers of the iconic green John Deere tractors, harvesters and mowers — citing its longstanding reluctance to prevent its customers from fixing their machines. Happened.
“Farmers depend on their farm equipment to make a living and support their families,” FTC Chair Leena Khan wrote in an article. statement together with complete complaint“Unreasonable repair restrictions could mean farmers face unnecessary delays during planting and harvesting.”
The FTC's main complaint here focuses on a software problem. deer spot Limitations on its operational softwareWhich means that certain features and calibrations on its tractors can only be unlocked by mechanics who have the correct digital key. Deere licenses those keys only to its authorized dealers, which means farmers often can't take their tractors to more convenient third-party mechanics or fix a problem themselves. The lawsuit will require John Deere to stop the practice of limiting the repair facilities its customers can access and make them available outside of official dealerships.
Kyle Wiens is CEO of repair advocacy retailer I fix it And a frequent WIRED contributor who first wrote about John Deere repair-averse strategy In 2015. In an interview today, he talked about how farmers get frustrated when they get caught up in Deere's policy when they try to right something that has gone wrong.
“When you have something that doesn't work, if you're 10 minutes from the store, it's no big deal,” Wiens says. “If the store is three hours away, which is for most farmers in the country, that's a big problem.”
The second difficulty is that US copyright protections prevent anyone other than John Deere from creating software that circumvents the restrictions the company imposes on its platform. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it so that people cannot legally counter technological measures that fall under its protection. John Deere equipment is covered under that copyright policy.
“Not only are they anti-competitive, it's literally illegal to compete with them,” says Wiens.
deer in headlights
Wiens says that even if there has been a decade Of push back against john deere farmers And Supporters of repairabilityCustomers using the company's machines have not received much benefit from that discussion.
“Things haven't really gotten better for farmers,” Venus says. “Despite all the noise over the years about the right to repair, nothing has changed yet for farmers on the ground.”
He believes this case against Deere will be different.
“That must be the thing that does it,” Wiens says. “The FTC is not going to settle unless John Deere makes the software available. This is a step in the right direction.”
Deere's reluctance to make its products more accessible has angered many of its customers, and even garnered a generally bipartisan Congress support For reproduction in agriculture sector. FTC alleges John Deere also violated Legislation Passed by Colorado State Government in 2023 need farm equipment Operational software sold to the state to make it accessible to users.
“Deere's unlawful business practices have increased repair costs for farmers and reduced farmers' ability to obtain timely repairs,” the lawsuit reads.
Deere & Co. did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Nathan Proctor, senior director of campaigns for the right to repair at the advocacy group US PIRG, wrote a statement Hailing the FTC's decision, he believes this case, no matter its outcome, will be a positive step forward for the right to repair movement more broadly.
“I think this discovery process will paint a picture that makes it clear that their device is programmed to monopolize certain repair functions,” Proctor told WIRED. “And I hope Deere will either fix the problem or pay the price. I don't know how long it will take. But this is an important milestone, because once the genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to put it back.