Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, in an action supported by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, recently filed a lawsuit against Deere & Company (Deere), challenging what they consider to be the company's restrictive repair practices. The lawsuit, announced on Wednesday, alleges that Deere has been utilizing unfair practices that inflate repair costs for farmers, effectively limiting farmers' ability to independently fix their equipment.
In the complaint, officials argue that Deere, a leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery, has for decades limited farmers and independent repair shops from accessing necessary tools and software for equipment maintenance and repair. They claim this policy not only raises farmers' costs but also hands Deere unjust control over the repair market. Despite increases in price and complexity of farming equipment, "farmers should have increased flexibility to repair and maintain their equipment and not be forced to utilize expensive authorized dealers," Raoul said, in a quote provided by the Illinois Attorney General's Office.
Central to the lawsuit is the Service ADVISOR tool, proprietary software used for diagnostics and repairs which Deere makes available exclusively to its authorized dealers. This leaves many farmers with no choice but to depend on Deere's dealer network for repairs that might be more affordably and quickly rendered by local shops or through the farmers' expertise. As a result, farmers may experience increased downtime during critical periods of the planting or harvesting calendar.
The coalition, through its lawsuit, seeks to compel Deere to provide independent farmers and repair shops with the same access to repair tools and resources that authorized dealers currently have. Despite mounting public pressure and legislative efforts aimed at broadening the "right to repair" for equipment owners, Deere's reluctance to share functional repair tools impedes farmers' ability to fully leverage, their investment in Deere machinery. The Attorney General's office also emphasized that this restriction has denied them access to their preferred repair service providers, prevented them from more reliably planting, spraying, or harvesting crops on a schedule that would allow them to maximize yield, and forced them to spend more on repair and parts.
Led by Raoul in March 2023, a bipartisan group of 27 attorneys general urged Congress to pass comprehensive Right-to-Repair legislation that would encompass vehicles, agricultural equipment, and digital electronic devices. The handling of this antitrust lawsuit against Deere falls to Bureau Chief Elizabeth Maxeiner and Assistant Attorney General Brian Yost within Raoul’s Antitrust Bureau.
