Today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against farm equipment manufacturer Deere & Company—maker of the iconic green John Deere tractors, harvesters, and lawn mowers—citing its long-standing reluctance to prevent customers from repairing their machines themselves. “Farmers rely on agricultural equipment to earn a living and feed their families,” FTC chairman Lina Khan wrote in a statement accompanying the full complaint. “Unfair repair limits can mean farmers face unnecessary delays during planting and harvest windows.” The FTC’s main complaint here centers around software problems. Deere restricts its operational software, meaning that certain features and calibrations on the tractor can only be locked by a mechanic with the proper digital key. Deere only licenses these keys to authorized dealers, which means farmers often can’t take their tractors to a more convenient third-party mechanic or simply fix the problem themselves. The suit requires John Deere to end its practice of limiting repair features that customers can use and make available to outside authorized dealers. Deere’s improvement tactics in 2015. In today’s interview, he notes how frustrated farmers are when trying to fix the wrong problem, only to be able to do it. 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,” Wiens said. “If the store is three hours away, which is for farmers in most countries, it’s a big problem.” Another difficulty is that US copyright protection prevents anyone but John Deere from creating software that defies the company’s restrictions. on a platform. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it impossible for people to legally challenge technological measures that fall under protection. John Deere equipment is covered by this copyright policy. farmers and improvement advocates, the customers who use the company’s machines have not benefited from all these discourses. “Despite all the noise about the right to repair over the years, nothing has materially changed for the farmers on the ground.” This suited Deere, he thought, to be different. ,” said Wiens. “The FTC will not be done until John Deere provides the software. This is a step in the right direction. The FTC accused John Deere of also violating a law passed by the Colorado state government in 2023 that requires agricultural equipment sold in the state to make operational software accessible to users. timely repairs,” the suit reads. Deere & Company did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Nathan Proctor, senior director for the Campaign for the Right to Repair at the US advocacy group PIRG, wrote a statement lauding the FTC’s decision. He thinks this case, not regardless of how it happens, it will be a positive step for the right to repair movement more broadly,” Proctor told WIRED. “And I expect that 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, there’s no going back in.”
