John Deere has agreed to a $99 million settlement in a class action lawsuit regarding its right-to-repair policies, which allegedly restricted farmers’ access to necessary diagnostic tools and software for equipment repairs. Austin Peiffer, an attorney with Ag & Business Legal Strategies in Hiawatha, Iowa, says this agreement now gives farmers options.
“The settlement includes 10 years of access to certain John Deere tools and technologies that were previously restricted, and so the hope is that will allow farmers and independent repair shops to repair these John Deere tractors and combines and other equipment effectively and bring competition into the market.”
Peiffer notes this class action was brought about under antitrust law.
“The theory is that by restricting these repair tools, John Deere has been able to charge more than it would have in a competitive market. It’s been monopolizing these tools and charging monopoly rents, and just like in the board game, when you have a monopoly, you charge more and you make more money, so that’s the theory here.”
He acknowledges that the right to actually repair your own equipment is the headline here, but adds there is the monetary element as well.
“I keep getting emails saying Google settled this class action and you’re entitled to a small amount of money, or Facebook settled that class action, and you’re entitled to a small amount of money. Well, this is the same idea, but it’s going to be a smaller class, so a lot bigger dollars per class member. So check your spam filter, you might see something. It’s actually the notice of how you make a claim in this.”