Today, the US The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere & Company—makers of John Deere tractors, harvesters, and mowers—citing its long-standing reluctance to keep its customers in repair.
“Farmers rely on their agricultural inputs to make a living and feed their families,” FTC chairwoman Lina Khan wrote in a statement accompanying the full complaint. “Improper maintenance restrictions can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during tight planting and harvest windows.”
The FTC’s main complaint here centers around the software problem. Deere places restrictions on its operating software, meaning that certain features and ratings of its tractors can only be opened by mechanics with the correct digital key. Deere only licenses those keys to its authorized dealers, which means farmers often can’t take their tractors to third-party mechanics or simply fix the problem themselves. The suit would require John Deere to stop its practice of limiting which repair features its customers can use and make them available only to authorized third-party dealers.
Kyle Wiens is the CEO of iFixit which promotes shop marketing and is an occasional WIRED contributor who first wrote about John Deere’s anti-repair tactics in 2015. In an interview today, he noted how farmers get frustrated when they try to fix something that has gone wrong. , to enter Deere’s policy.
“If you have something that doesn’t work, if you’re 10 minutes from the store, it’s not a big deal,” said Wiens. “If the store is three hours away, which is the case for many farmers in the country, it is a big problem.”
Another difficulty is that US copyright protection prevents anyone but John Deere from making software that violates the company’s restrictions. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it possible for individuals to legally object to technological measures that fall under its protection. John Deere equipment falls under that copyright policy.
“Not only are they anti-competitive, it’s illegal to compete with them,” Wiens said.
Deere in the Lights
Wiens says that while there’s been a decade of pushback against John Deere from farmers and maintenance reps, customers who use the company’s equipment haven’t seen much benefit from all that talk.
“Things are still not good for the farmers,” said Wiens. “Even if there has been noise about the right to repair over the years, nothing has changed for the farmers at the bottom yet.”
This case against Deere, he thinks, will be different.
“This should be something that does,” Wiens said. “The FTC will not settle until John Deere makes the software available. This is a step in the right direction.”
Deere’s reluctance to make its products more affordable has angered many of its customers, and even garnered bipartisan support in Congress for reforms in the agricultural sector. The FTC alleges that John Deere also violated a law passed by the Colorado state government in 2023 that requires farm equipment sold in the state to make operating software available to users.
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