Federal Court Rejects Deere's Motion to Dismiss FTC Right-to-Repair Lawsuit

June 11, 2025

The Federal Trade Commission's right-to-repair antitrust lawsuit against John Deere will continue after a federal court this week rejected Deere's attempts to end the lawsuit.

The FTC filed the lawsuit just four days before the end of the Biden administration and was joined by attorneys general from Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit alleges Deere violates antitrust laws in not giving farmers and independent repair shops all the necessary diagnostic tools to repair tractors and combines. The FTC asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Illinois to issue a permanent injunction against Deere.

Deere had argued, among other things, that the statute of limitations had run out on the states' claims and that the states lacked standing. The company also argued the plaintiffs failed to plead a cognizable aftermarket and farmers had full knowledge of Deere's decades-long repair practices when they bought equipment.

U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston didn't buy Deere's arguments and made movie references in his ruling.

"Sequels so rarely beat their originals that even the acclaimed Steve Martin couldn't do it on three tries," Johnston said in denying Deere's motion for judgement on the pleadings.

"See Cheaper by the Dozen II, Pink Panther II, Father of the Bride II. Rebooting its earlier production, Deere sought to defy the odds. To be sure, like nearly all sequels, Deere edited the dialogue and cast some new characters, giving cameos to veteran stars like Humphrey's Executor. But ultimately the plot felt predictable, the script derivative. Deere I received a thumbs-down and Deere II fares no better. The court denies the motion for judgment on the pleadings."

The FTC's lawsuit is in the same court where a group of nearly 20 similar farm lawsuits against Deere were filed.

In the FTC lawsuit, Deere challenged the agency's constitutional authority to even bring the action and argued that the combination of the FTC commissioners' removal protections and enforcement powers violates the separation of powers.

Johnston rejected the claim and said in the order that even if the removal restrictions were unconstitutional, the property solution would not include invalidating FTC's enforcement powers.

Johnston said that at the current place in the case, the court is required to accept the allegations made against Deere as true.

"The Governments say there's a throughline between Deere's practices: farmers have no alternatives because of the system created by Deere, which charges supracompetitive prices because of the lack of any alternatives," Johnston said in the opinion.

"In technologizing its equipment, Deere makes farmers reliant on Deere's own ADVISOR software. And, in only licensing that software to its authorized Dealers, Deere forces farmers to visit those shops instead of using closer, cheaper options."

Just after the FTC lawsuit was filed, Deere put out a rare and forceful statement to the media saying the action came while negotiations were ongoing with the FTC.

"The complaint is based on flagrant misrepresentations of the facts and fatally flawed legal theories and it punishes innovation and procompetitive-product design," Deere said at the time. "John Deere will vigorously defend itself against this baseless lawsuit."

The FTC lawsuit came about because of an investigation by the Biden administration that began in 2022 when the National Farmers Union and state-level farmers unions filed a complaint with the FTC.

The FTC lawsuit attempts to bring four counts against John Deere, including monopolization of the restricted repair services market, using an unfair method of competition in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as well as violations of the Illinois Antitrust Act and the Minnesota Antitrust Law.

In addition to seeking a permanent injunction against Deere, the lawsuit also asks the court to order the company to make available to owners of "Deere large tractors and combines" the "Full-Function Service ADVISOR."

Source: DTN