John Deere Pays $99 Million To Settle ‘Right To Repair’ Class Action

from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept

A few years ago agricultural equipment giant John Deere found itself on the receiving end of multiple state, federal, and class action lawsuits for its efforts to monopolize tractor repair. The lawsuits noted that the company consistently purchased competing repair centers in order to consolidate the sector and force customers into using the company’s own repair facilities, driving up costs and logistical hurdles dramatically for farmers.

John Deere executives have repeatedly promised to do better, then just ignored those promises. Early last year, the FTC and numerous states filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company for its efforts to monopolize repair. Though, with MAGA corruption purging any remaining antitrust enforcers from its ranks, it’s unclear if the FTC action will ever actually result in anything meaningful.

John Deere did however just have to pay $99 million to settle a different class action lawsuit brought by its customers. Under the settlement John Deere doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing, but will deposit the money into a fund to pay more than 200,000 John Deere owners for expensive dealership repairs since 2018.

In an announcement by the company, John Deere pretends they’re a consumer-focused enterprise:

“As we continue to innovate industry leading equipment and technology solutions supported by our world-class dealer network, we are equally committed to providing customers and other service providers with access to repair resources,” said Denver Caldwell, vice president, Aftermarket & Customer Support. “We’re pleased that this resolution allows us to move forward and remain focused on what matters most – serving our customers.”

Except if John Deere had cared about customer service, they wouldn’t be in this predicament.

In addition to intentionally acquiring repair alternatives to monopolize repair and drive up consumer costs, John Deere also routinely makes repair difficult and costly through the act of software locks, obnoxious DRM restrictions, and “parts pairing” — which involves only allowing the installation of company-certified replacement parts — or mandatory collections of company-blessed components.

More recently, the company had been striking meaningless “memorandums of understanding” with key trade groups, pinky swearing to stop their bad behavior if the groups agree to not support state or federal right to repair legislation. Several such groups backed off their criticism, only to have John Deere continue its monopolistic behavior, the FTC’s complaint notes.

The annoyance at John Deere’s behavior has driven a broad, bipartisan movement that’s in very vocal support for state and federal guidelines enshrining “right to repair” protections into law. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea of a state law, only Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

And among those, not one has taken any substantive action to actually enforce the new law, something that needs to change if the movement is to obtain and retain meaningful policy momentum.

Filed Under: agriculture, class action, dealership, ftc, lawsuits, repairs, right to repair, tractors

Companies: john deere