FTC and Five States Settle With Deere, Securing Farmers' Right to Repair for 10 Years
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on July 8, 2026, that it and the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin had reached a settlement with farm equipment maker Deere & Company resolving their lawsuit over repair restrictions. The proposed stipulated order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, case No. 3:25-cv-50017.
The FTC and the states sued Deere in January 2025, alleging that Deere limited access to a fully functioning software tool to only its network of authorized dealers, restricting the ability of farmers and independent repair providers to repair Deere equipment, forcing farmers to spend more and wait longer, and that the restrictions violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act.
Under the settlement, by the end of 2026 Deere must provide farmers and independent repair providers with the same repair resources it provides to its dealers, including applicable software capabilities and electronic repair tools such as PRO Service, on fair and reasonable terms that account for their ability to afford the tools. The parity requirement also extends to future repair tools once Deere makes them available to more than 50 percent of its authorized dealer locations in the United States.
The order runs for ten years and may be extended if Deere violates its terms. During the rollout, Deere must file compliance reports every 60 days, and then annually for the ten-year term, and it must instruct its dealers to promote the availability of the repair resources and not to discriminate or retaliate against farmers or repair providers who use them. FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson, joined by Commissioner Mark R. Meador, issued a statement on the settlement.
Source: U.S. Federal Trade Commission
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：一台迪尔公司（John Deere）拖拉机在华盛顿国家广场现代农业展上展出（资料照片，2024年）。美国农业部摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A John Deere tractor on display at the Celebration of Modern Agriculture on the National Mall in Washington (file photo, 2024). U.S. Department of Agriculture, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
