Washington, D.C. — Following the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit—joined by Illinois and Minnesota Attorneys General—against John Deere for its monopolistic repair restrictions that burden farmers with higher costs and devastating delays, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“For years, John Deere has exploited its dominance to trap farmers in an abusive system where even basic repairs require costly trips to authorized dealers,” said Nidhi Hegde, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “It’s commonsense that farmers should be able to fix their own equipment or turn to local, independent repair shops to keep their operations running smoothly during planting and harvest seasons. We’re thrilled to see the FTC take action with this suit to challenge John Deere’s monopolistic practices, which seeks to ensure that that farmers can stay in business, rural communities can thrive, and the resiliency of our food system isn’t jeopardized by anticompetitive conduct.”

Deere controls 53% of the U.S. market for large tractors and 60% for combines, leveraging this dominance to maintain a stranglehold on the repair market. As the FTC notes, Deere restricts access to its Service ADVISOR tool, the only software capable of diagnosing and fixing all issues in Deere equipment. This has forced farmers to either endure costly delays or see their machinery sit idle at critical times, such as harvest, when every hour matters.

The FTC’s action is the culmination of years of growing awareness around Deere’s unfair practices. Farmers, independent repair providers, and state lawmakers have repeatedly raised alarms about the harm caused by repair restrictions, which limit competition, inflate costs, and create unnecessary hardship for rural communities.

To learn more, read “Courage to Learn: Agriculture” here.

Read Economic Liberties’ 2021 paper, “Cheat to Win: The John Deere Story,” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.