FTC Settlement Gives John Deere Owners Right to Repair Their Equipment

After more than a decade of pushback, farmers and independent repair shops win access to diagnostic software, tools, and repair resources that John Deere had kept under its control.

The Federal Trade Commission has secured a landmark settlement with John Deere, requiring the farming equipment giant to give farmers and third-party repair shops access to the same equipment and repair resources it provides to official dealerships. This includes software capabilities for reading and resetting diagnostic codes and pairing with components — tools customers have long had limited access to, creating delays that many farmers saw as a fundamental threat to their livelihoods.

Under the agreement, John Deere will be required to provide this level of access, equipment, and services for the next 10 years, monitored by the FTC. The settlement marks the culmination of a fight that began in 2021 under then-FTC chair Lina Khan and follows more than a decade of farmer advocacy.

"After years of fighting for the right to repair, this order gives farmers real hope," said Willie Cade, a board member of the repair advocacy organization Repair.org. "But promises on paper must become tools in farmers' hands, and we will be watching implementation every step of the way."

The consumer advocacy group US PIRG also praised the decision. "We should be able to fix our own stuff," wrote Right to Repair campaign director Nathan Proctor. "This settlement from the FTC gives farmers more and better options to repair their equipment."

John Deere maintains the settlement formalizes what it was already doing, stating the agreement "reinforces Deere's continued innovation toward more flexible repair options, emphasizing increased access and transparency for customers." The settlement follows a separate $99 million class action payout John Deere agreed to in April over the same repair restrictions.

Sources: WIRED AP News