Attorney General Mayes Secures Right-to-Repair Win for Arizona Farmers in Settlement with Deere & Company

PHOENIX —Attorney General Kris Mayes today announced that her office, together with the Federal Trade Commission and the states of Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, has reached a settlement with Deere & Company resolving allegations that the agricultural equipment giant illegally restricted farmers' and independent repair shops' ability to fix their own tractors and other farm equipment.

"For too long, Arizona farmers and independent mechanics have been at the mercy of Deere's monopoly over repair tools, forced to wait — and pay — for authorized dealers just to fix broken tractors and other equipment," Attorney General Mayes said. "This settlement puts control back where it belongs: in the hands of the people who own the equipment. I am proud to have brought this lawsuit on behalf of Arizona farmers."

Under the terms of the stipulated order, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Deere is required to make diagnostic and repair tools available to equipment owners and independent repair providers on fair and reasonable terms — resources that until now were largely reserved for Deere's own authorized dealer network.

The order also bars Deere dealers from discriminating or retaliating against owners and repair providers who choose to fix their own equipment rather than pay for Deere's repair services.
 
Under the terms of the stipulated order settling the lawsuit, Deere will be required to:

• Make available to farmers and independent repair providers, on fair and reasonable terms, repair resources equivalent to those Deere now makes available to Deere dealers including:
  • Reading, clearing and resetting electronic fault codes;
  • Reprogramming of electronic components (including “pairing” newly installed electronic parts with equipment);
  • Restarting a machine following an emissions-related shutdown (commonly referred to as “limp mode”); and
  • Viewing and searching technical manuals, troubleshooting solutions (including so-called “product improvement programs” and “DTAC solutions”) and other guidance and information useful for equipment diagnosis, maintenance, repair or upgrade.
• Make available to farmers and independent repair providers any future repair resources that are similar or reasonably necessary for repairs, once Deere makes them available to over 50 percent of its authorized dealer network in the United States;
• Instruct its authorized dealers to promote the availability of these repair resources and support their use, and not to discriminate or retaliate against any farmers or independent repair providers who purchase or use such resources rather than dealer repair services; and
• Provide notice to the public, to Deere’s farmer and independent repair provider customers and to its authorized dealers information about the stipulated order and the availability of Deere’s repair resources.

Deere will also be subject to strict reporting and oversight requirements to ensure its compliance with the stipulated order. The term of the order is 10 years and may be extended if Deere violates its terms.

A copy of the settlement is available.