The “Right to Repair” War / John Deere Lawsuit

John Deere loses battle in “Right to Repair” war​

Story by Kyle Smith • Yesterday 5:00 PM

The saga of consumers’ “right to repair” their vehicles has waged in the courts for years, but a shift came yesterday as American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The six-page document, which you can read here, places farmers and independent repair shops in the driver’s seat when it comes to maintaining tractors. However, the agreement is not as final—or as binding—as Right to Repair advocates would hope.

Read the rest here:

Good!

Sounds like the market is ripe for a competitor to sell a competing product that uses open source software. It's kind of like the market battles between Apple (proprietary / closed system model) and Android (open source model).

pmbug said:

It's kind of like the market battles between Apple (proprietary / closed system model) and Android (open source model).

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Apple announces Self Service Repair​

November 17, 2021
Apple parts, tools, and manuals — starting with iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 — available to individual consumers

It only makes sense! Once the customer screws it up... APPL can sell them another phone!

I own two diesel tractors. One of them is a Deere. Fortunately, both are old enough that neither one has a computer and neither one takes that damn cat piss in the exhaust. I have friends who own DEF tractors and they hate them. I am told that they will simply stop in the middle of a field to "regenerate" or whatever it is that they do and that there is nothing the user can do about it. I am also told that if they break down there is nothing to do but call the dealer and have it picked up. One friend had his DEF pump quit on him. Set him back $3,500 and there was nothing he could do about it.

I have a 25 year old Ford New Holland that has never needed anything but routine maintenance. Wonderful machine. And we have a 17 year old John Deere that has been nothing but trouble since we got it. Multiple hydraulic leaks that I have repaired myself. And an electrical gremlin that even the dealer could not repair. They gave me the tractor back unrepaired with an $800 bill and I finally had to resort to bypassing all the safety switches on the unit to get it to start reliably when we needed it. It's been pretty good since I bypassed everything.

The 55 horse blue one does all the mowing on the place and the green one (32 hp) is mainly used around the barns to move materials and whatnot.

pmbug said:

Sounds like the market is ripe for a competitor to sell a competing product that uses open source software. It's kind of like the market battles between Apple (proprietary / closed system model) and Android (open source model).

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Not going to happen. In fact, the opposite has happened - went from over 20 major makers, to now, three. Five if you include Kubota and Fiat.

Why won't it happen? First, a high bar to entry...engineering; certification (EPA and OSHA) and legal liability. Tens of thousands of farmers and others have been killed by flipping or rolling tractors.

Then, again, EPA regs. NOT ONLY do they have to make their diesels clean enough to satisfy the pocket-protector geeks at EPA, but they have to demonstrate a plan to KEEP it clean - something roadgoing vehicles don't have to do.

With street-licensed equipment, an emissions test has been tied to tag renewal. With railway equipment, the government can just stipulate it with the FRA - which has the power to fine railroads.

With farm tractors? Nothing. They're not registered. There are far too many independent farmers to keep track. There are far too many INSURANCE agencies to stipulate emissions testing as a prerequisite - too many, means too hard to buffalo and herd, too many to get onboard.

Deere tried this plan. Now it's not working. Next is to find a way to license farms or farmers or produce sold to the public. Just watch.

I wonder if this is why the Department of Agriculture keep sending me surveys and census questionnaires? I throw them out without opening them of course. They call and leave messages, but I ignore them. The census envelopes all say that they are required by law, but I'm pretty sure that is bullshit for the gullible. Hell, I don't send in the real census, I'll be damned if I'm going to send the Ag one in.

Casey Jones said:

Not going to happen. In fact, the opposite has happened - went from over 20 major makers, to now, three. Five if you include Kubota and Fiat.

Why won't it happen? First, a high bar to entry...engineering; certification (EPA and OSHA) and legal liability. Tens of thousands of farmers and others have been killed by flipping or rolling tractors.

Then, again, EPA regs. NOT ONLY do they have to make their diesels clean enough to satisfy the pocket-protector geeks at EPA, but they have to demonstrate a plan to KEEP it clean - something roadgoing vehicles don't have to do.

With street-licensed equipment, an emissions test has been tied to tag renewal. With railway equipment, the government can just stipulate it with the FRA - which has the power to fine railroads.

With farm tractors? Nothing. They're not registered. There are far too many independent farmers to keep track. There are far too many INSURANCE agencies to stipulate emissions testing as a prerequisite - too many, means too hard to buffalo and herd, too many to get onboard.

Deere tried this plan. Now it's not working. Next is to find a way to license farms or farmers or produce sold to the public. Just watch.

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Building tractors = Easy.
Dealing with communists and Government = Impossible

John Deere company can be real asses. They were suing small bussiness owners on Etsy for trademark infringement. Not because they stole their name or logo but because they used green tractors in their art work. Apparently they own the rights to green tractors. Another company if Tiffany Jewelers. They have a color trademarked. Like they invented color or something. If you use that shade of blue they sue you. I'm ready for it all to BURN!!!

Avalon said:

John Deere company can be real asses. They were suing small bussiness owners on Etsy for trademark infringement. Not because they stole their name or logo but because they used green tractors in their art work. Apparently they own the rights to green tractors. Another company if Tiffany Jewelers. They have a color trademarked. Like they invented color or something. If you use that shade of blue they sue you. I'm ready for it all to BURN!!!

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Woketard management.

It has infected the ranks of corporations the world over. Deere, Apple...GM...Ford, with those stupid battery cars that ALREADY they're stiffing owners with, with early-fail batteries.

Daimler-Benz...they used to make a superbly-engineered car. That was before the 1990s; and now, what they make, is gaudy bling for crony-rentiers.

It is what it is. They're gonna get theirs...soon...as we de-industrialize, not even from a plan, but from financial collapse and the instability of tyrannical government.

A Massachusetts law protects the right to repair your own car. Automakers are suing.​

Story by Maddie Stone • Yesterday 6:30 AM

In 2013, long before there was a national campaign pressuring Big Tech to make it easier for people to fix their smartphones, Massachusetts passed a law explicitly giving consumers the right to repair their cars. Now, that right is under threat. A pending federal lawsuit could decide its fate — and in so doing, transform the auto repair landscape at a time when cars increasingly resemble giant computers.

The lawsuit in question, Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Maura Healey, concerns a ballot measure Bay State voters overwhelmingly approved in 2020. That so-called Data Access Law requires that automakers grant car owners and independent repair shops access to vehicle “telematics,” data that cars transmit wirelessly to the manufacturer. Proponents of the law say giving owners control over this data will help level the playing field for auto repair as the computerization and electrification of cars create new challenges for independent shops. Not doing so could give manufacturers a competitive advantage over repair, one that consumer advocates fear will lead to fewer options, higher prices, and ultimately, cars getting junked faster.

Read the rest here:

In rural America, right-to-repair laws are the leading edge of a pushback against growing corporate power​

Story by Leland Glenna, Professor of Rural Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society, Penn State • 5h ago

As tractors became more sophisticated over the past two decades, the big manufacturers allowed farmers fewer options for repairs. Rather than hiring independent repair shops, farmers have increasingly had to wait for company-authorized dealers to arrive. Getting repairs could take days, often leading to lost time and high costs.

A new memorandum of understanding between the country’s largest farm equipment maker, John Deere Corp., and the American Farm Bureau Federation is now raising hopes that U.S. farmers will finally regain the right to repair more of their own equipment.

However, supporters of right-to-repair laws suspect a more sinister purpose: to slow the momentum of efforts to secure right-to-repair laws around the country.

More:

Colorado becomes 1st to pass ‘right to repair’ for farmers​

Story by By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press/Report for America • 4h ago


DENVER (AP) — Colorado became the first state Tuesday to ensure farmers can fix their own equipment with the governor’s signing of a “right to repair” law, which forces manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software.

Colorado, a state partly blanketed in ranches and farmland, took the lead on the issue following a nationwide outcry from farmers that manufacturers prevent them from fixing their own machines — from behemoth combines to thin tractors — when they break down. Farmers say it forces them to wait precious days for a servicer to arrive, a delay that could mean a hail storm decimates a crop or a farmer misses the ideal planting window.

Newmisty said:

View attachment 6937

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Nice chop! Anyone notice the hay inspection cat?

Feds tell automakers not to comply with Mass. “right to repair” law​

Today at undefined

In 2020, voters in Massachusetts chose to extend that state's automotive "right to repair" law to include telematics and connected car services. But this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told automakers that some of the law's requirements create a real safety problem and that they should be ignored since federal law preempts state law when the two conflict.

Almost all new cars in 2023 contain embedded modems and offer some form of telematics or connected car services. And the ballot language that passed in Massachusetts requires "manufacturers that sell vehicles with telematics systems in Massachusetts to equip them with a standardized open data platform beginning with model year 2022 that vehicle owners and independent repair facilities may access to retrieve mechanical data and run diagnostics through a mobile-based application."

More here:

Organizations representing the country’s independent automotive repairers, collision repair experts and automakers have inked an agreement on automotive right-to-repair. The commitment among the Automotive Service Association (ASA), the Society of Collision Repair Specialists and Alliance for Automotive Innovation affirms a 2014 national agreement on automotive right-to-repair and states unequivocally that “independent repair facilities shall have access to the same diagnostic and repair information that auto manufacturers make available to authorized dealer networks.”

Nov 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday said Deere & Co (DE.N) must face claims from crop farms and farmers that the agricultural machinery maker has unlawfully conspired to restrict services for maintenance and repair.

U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston in Rockford, Illinois, rejected Deere's effort to dismiss consolidated lawsuits accusing the Moline, Illinois-based company of violating U.S. antitrust law.

The judge said the plaintiffs had met legal thresholds to pursue their claims.

Podcast Episode: Right to Repair Catches the Car​

If you buy something—a refrigerator, a car, a tractor, a wheelchair, or a phone—but you can't have the information or parts to fix or modify it, is it really yours? The right to repair movement is based on the belief that you should have the right to use and fix your stuff as you see fit, a philosophy that resonates especially in economically trying times, when people can’t afford to just throw away and replace things.

If I want to listen to a podcast, but cannot download it - can only listen on my computer, stuck at my desk - do I really benefit from the information?

I'd say, not. Several ways this woman, "Gay," has made sure I cannot download the mp3. So, I will not.

To the subject: It's all part-and-parcel of the Great Taking. We are to be looted and bankrupted - not because they want our crappy tractors or refrigerators, but because they want us broke and without ANYTHING, and conveniently dying in big piles.

David Webb has covered the endgame of this, more plainly than he does in his book. The book covers the how. With Seth Holehouse (Man in America podcast, that I CAN download) he explains his understanding of the reasoning behind the insanity.

It goes back further than the Club of Rome...to the Fabian Society. Part of THEIR beliefs were, also, you guessed it, the need to Depopulate. They fantasize that they, and only they, are fit to make critical decisions in and of society; and a smaller population is easier to control.

STATEMENT: Colorado lawmakers approve broad, nation-leading Right to Repair law​

DENVER — Colorado state lawmakers sent a bill on Tuesday to the governor’s desk that would ensure Coloradans have access to the tools, parts, diagnostics and software they need to fix most electronic products — everything from household appliances, to cell phones and IT equipment. Research shows that repairing instead of replacing these products when they break could save Coloradans $882 million per year, while reducing e-waste, the fastest-growing waste stream in the world. If Gov. Jared Polis signs the bill as expected, Coloradans will have the broadest repair rights of any Americans.

More:

Casey Jones said:

If I want to listen to a podcast, but cannot download it ...

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EFF podcast page includes link to YouTube version which is easy to download.

I didn't see that link earlier (I do, now). I sure looked...I wonder if it was edited in late?

searcher said:

John Deere accused of breaking right-to-repair promises

Tractor maker has only turned over shoddy tools, half-baked info, may be breaking the law, says senator

www.theregister.com

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Update:

FTC sues Deere, alleging equipment repair 'monopoly' raises costs for farmers​

• The Federal Trade Commission has sued agricultural equipment company Deere & Company, arguing it holds a monopoly on repair services.
• The FTC alleges that the company's tactics forced customers to rely on authorized dealers for equipment fixes.
• The lawsuit says the arrangement drives up costs and repair times for farmers.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued agricultural equipment giant Deere & Company, arguing it holds a monopoly on repair services that raises costs and creates delays for farmers, the agency announced Wednesday.

More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/oth...S&cvid=1e062e911ddf4b3597edd55a97288ca9&ei=30

^^^^^^^^
From the article above:


Lawsuit pdf

FTC Cracks Down On Deere For Denying Right To Repair​

Jan 16, 2025 #RightToRepair #JohnDeere #FTC

In a major development for farmers and consumers alike, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken significant action against agricultural giant John Deere regarding the ongoing "Right to Repair" debate. In this video, we break down the FTC's decision, what it means for John Deere, farmers, and the future of repair rights in the U.S. agricultural industry.

Yesterday, the FTC issued a landmark statement addressing John Deere’s restrictive repair policies that have long been a point of contention for farmers. The complaint centers around John Deere’s refusal to provide independent repair shops and farmers with access to necessary diagnostic tools, software, and parts to maintain and fix their equipment. For years, John Deere has been criticized for locking down access to the internal workings of its machines, forcing farmers to rely on costly, authorized dealerships for repairs and maintenance.

The FTC’s action is also seen as a victory for the growing "Right to Repair" movement, which advocates for greater transparency and access to repair tools and parts for consumers across industries.

Why Is This Important? For years, farmers have been at the mercy of John Deere's repair monopoly. The company’s refusal to allow users to repair their own equipment has left many farmers in a tough spot, with repair costs skyrocketing and equipment downtime leading to lost productivity. Farmers are also forced to pay for expensive repairs through John Deere’s authorized service centers, which don't always have the capacity for farmers' schedules, leading to delays during crucial planting and harvest seasons.

The issue goes beyond just inconvenience. Many farmers have expressed concerns about being unable to repair their own equipment in a timely and cost-effective manner. When tractors, harvesters, or other critical equipment break down, delays in repairs can result in significant financial losses, especially during peak seasons.

Farmers argue that the inability to repair their machinery—or even have independent repair shops do it—results in exorbitant costs, delays, and even forced obsolescence. The broader implications of the FTC's action against John Deere could lead to policy changes that will benefit not only farmers but consumers in many industries who are advocating for the same rights.

What Does the FTC’s Action Mean? The FTC’s move against John Deere could set the stage for more widespread regulatory changes across industries. For farmers, it represents a potential for significant relief. If John Deere is forced to comply with new regulations, it could pave the way for more affordable and accessible repair options.

The FTC’s decision also sends a clear message to other manufacturers that restrictive repair practices could face heightened scrutiny from regulators. It is a signal that companies cannot continue to monopolize repair services, limit consumer choice, or stifle competition in a way that harms the end user.

What’s Next for John Deere? John Deere has long been a symbol of agricultural machinery, but its practices regarding repair access have been highly controversial. With the FTC's action, the company may be forced to alter its approach to the "Right to Repair." While it's unclear what specific changes will occur, farmers and independent repair professionals are hopeful that it will lead to increased transparency and competition in the repair space.

As the situation continues to unfold, farmers and consumers should expect more public hearings, debates, and discussions about the Right to Repair, especially in the context of large, heavily regulated industries like agriculture. The FTC’s action may lead to new rules that require John Deere to open up access to repair software, tools, and manuals to anyone who owns one of its machines.

Farmers are encouraged to stay informed about their rights and monitor any future developments from the FTC regarding this case. With this recent action, there’s a chance that change is on the horizon for the agricultural sector. The "Right to Repair" movement is gaining steam, and the push for fairer access to repairs and services is growing stronger every day.

Stay tuned to this channel for updates on this developing story and more insights into the Right to Repair movement. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to stay informed on all things related to agriculture, technology, and consumer rights.

17:52

NBC News

Right-to-repair revolution: Farmers challenge John Deere's control over equipment repair​

Spring is planting season for Missouri farmer Jared Wilson. It’s his only opportunity during the year to get his corn and soybeans sown and sprayed. Not getting it right would affect his yield. But every year, he says, he struggles to get his John Deere equipment to do the job. Broken down combines, tractors and harvesters have cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix.

“Time absolutely means money in this business,” Wilson said. “When you have machines that are failing at those critical times of the year — when you have that one shot to get things right — it can severely impact your bottom line.”

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/r...equipment-repair/ar-AA1DolVD?ocid=socialshare

It's really too bad that JD went to absolute garbage. They are a major employer in the area. Of course, they've been planning to dumb them for years and head to Mexico anyway, so forget them. They are finished IMO. Perhaps they can survive and reinvent themselves but they are probably far too big to be able to pull that maneuver.