John Deere Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for Alleged Tractor Repair Monopoly

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The story is 157675683.

BeauHD posted from the locked-out-of-repair dept.

John Deere has been accused of running an illegal repair monopoly. The lawsuit alleged that John Deere has used software locks and restricted access to repair documentation and tools, making it very difficult for farmers to fix their own agricultural equipment. John Deere is accused of violating antitrust rules and of illegally tying farmers to Deere-authorized service centers through arbitrary means. Farmers have traditionally had the ability to repair and maintain their own tractor, or they have the option to bring their tractor to an independent mechanic, according to the lawsuit. Deere made crucial software and repair tools unavailable to farmers and independent repair shops in newer generations of its agricultural equipment.

John Deere's network of highly-consolidated independent dealerships is not permitted through their agreements with Deere to provide farmers or repair shops with access to the same software and repair tools according to a recent antitrust lawsuit filed by Forest River Farms. Deere and the Dealerships have cornered the Deere Repair Services Market in the United States for Deere- branded agricultural equipment controlled by the ECUs and have derived supracompetitive profits from the sale of repair.

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