January 15, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) – Today, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, alongside Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Federal Trade Commission, sued agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere & Company (Deere), also known as John Deere, over its use of unfair practices that have driven up equipment repair costs for farmers while also depriving farmers of the ability to make timely repairs on critical farming equipment, including tractors.
The complaint alleges that, for decades, Deere’s unlawful practices have limited the ability of farmers and independent repair providers to repair Deere equipment, forcing farmers to instead rely on Deere’s network of authorized dealers for necessary repairs. This unfair steering practice has boosted Deere’s multi-billion-dollar profits on agricultural equipment and parts, growing its repair parts business while burdening farmers with higher repair costs, the complaint alleges.
“Minnesota farmers proudly feed and supply people across the world, and our farmers deserve better than what they’re getting from Deere,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Deere has made it virtually impossible for farmers themselves or independent repair shops to fully repair Deere equipment, which forces farmers to rely on authorized Deere dealers, which can be more expensive, slower, and for some a long distance away from farms. I’m filing this lawsuit against Deere to end their unlawful repair monopoly and make it easier for Minnesota farmers to afford their lives.”
Durable, reliable, and easily repairable agricultural equipment is critical to American farmers. Yet Deere, which maintains a dominant market share position across the large agricultural equipment market, has made it difficult for farmers to repair their own equipment or turn to local, independent repair providers.
The only fully functional software repair tool capable of performing all repairs on Deere equipment is produced by Deere. Deere makes this tool available only to Deere’s authorized dealers, forcing farmers to solely rely on more expensive authorized dealers for critical repairs. By creating these restrictions, Deere has unlawfully acquired and maintained monopoly power in the market for certain repair services for Deere agricultural equipment, according to the complaint.
Deere’s monopoly power
Historically, farmers have built up the knowhow to keep costs down by either repairing their own equipment or relying on local, independent shops, which have offered various advantages over authorized Deere dealers, including lower costs, better reliability, closer to the farmers, and faster repair times.
Yet with the increasing computerization of Deere’s equipment over the past few decades, farmers must now rely on Deere’s interactive software tool called Service ADVISOR, which Deere makes available exclusively to its authorized dealers, the complaint states.
An inferior repair tool exists, Customer Service ADVISOR, but it lacks the same capabilities found in the tools provided to authorized Deere dealers. Deere has failed to release information needed to create a fully functioning generic repair tool for independent shops like manufacturers in the car and trucking industries have done.
Through its limited distribution of its repair tools, Deere has been able to control and limit who can repair its agricultural equipment, allowing Deere to maintain a 100% market share and charge higher prices, via its network of authorized dealers, for all repairs that require the fully functional tool.
Deere’s repair restrictions allow it to reap additional profits through parts sales, as its authorized network of dealers almost always use expensive Deere-branded parts in their repairs in lieu of generic parts.
Despite increasing public pressure to give farmers the right to repair their own equipment, including state legislative action, Deere continues to unlawfully withhold a fully functional repair tool from equipment owners. Deere’s restrictions deprive farmers of the use of their own repair labor, deny them access to their preferred repair service providers, prevent them from more reliably planting, spraying, or harvesting crops on a schedule that would allow them to maximize yield, and force them to spend more on repair and parts, the complaint states.
Among other remedies, Attorney General Ellison asks the court to order that Deere make its fully functional Service ADVISOR repair tool available to independent repair providers and owners of Deere large tractors and combines, along with any other repair resources that are available to authorized dealers.
Attorney General Ellison encourages Minnesota farmers, consumers and businesses who wish to report concerns about antitrust issues to submit a report online via the Antitrust Report Form. Consumers may also call the Attorney General’s Office at (651) 296-3353 (Metro area), (800) 657-3787 (Greater Minnesota), or (800) 627-3529 (Minnesota Relay).
Office of the Minnesota Attorney General
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