John Deere to Pay $99 Million in Monumental Right-to-Repair Settlement

https://www.thedrive.com/news/john-deere-to-pay-99-million-in-monumental-right-to-repair-settlement

39 Comments

  1. ActualSpiders on

    When companies can’t increase their profits by selling more or better products, they just start gouging their existing customers. Usually this starts right after they eliminate or co-op all viable competition.

  2. the big win is they’ve agreed to make repair and diagnostics tools available to third parties for a decade. not as good as new law, but better than nothing

  3. >The agricultural manufacturing giant pointed out in a statement that this is no admission of wrongdoing

    >The settlement also includes an agreement by Deere to provide “the digital tools ​required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair” of tractors, combines, and other machinery for 10 years. 

    Yeeeah, this is a slap for behavior that will continue as soon as they are allowed to.

  4. Shiftymennoknight on

    Can we throw the CEO in prison as well to make sure it doesnt happen again?

  5. Goat_Wizard_Doom_666 on

    On the upside, they taught farmers how to be hackers. 🤷‍♂️

  6. And Colorado has an about to give them a get of jail free card…essentially lets them define what products do or don’t have a right to repair…I’m sure they can be trusted to look out for our best interests.

    SB26-090 is the culprit. Proposed by John Carson, Marc Synder, & Tony Hartsook, not even 6 months after the effective bill went into effect. These people don’t work for us, represent us, or care about us.

  7. John Deere’s Market cap is roughly $155 BILLION, and their net income for 2025 was ~$5 BILLION. This is just the cost of doing business to them.

    Until CEOs/Boards are thrown into prison, these fines are nothing more than business expenses to them.

  8. richardsneeze on

    I thought the headline said “John Denver” at first glance and I was very curious about what Mr. Rocky Mountain High himself could have made impossible to repair.

  9. -notaflamethrower on

    As a 3rd party repairer I was just told by my local John Deere dealer that they are no longer honoring warranty on parts sold to 3rd party repair companies. If I buy it for my customers machine it comes with no warranty. If my customer buys it and has me put it on they will honor the warranty through the customer. The next step they are taking to screw over 3rd parties.

  10. Fabulous_Chemical_ on

    Or they donate 10% of that to Trump and don’t pay any victims. Kind of like that recent nursing home case.

  11. PetalumaPegleg on

    Classic no admission of fault and a fine that doesn’t do anything to them. The US doesn’t punish companies for bad behavior and incentivizes it as a result.

  12. FirmPhone9086 on

    Should be $99 billion and put them out of business. Take Monsanto with them.

  13. Signal_Flight_7262 on

    If the fines don’t cover the crime it’s not a fine.

    According to research cited by federal lawmakers and the FTC, repair restrictions cost American farmers an estimated **$4.2 billion per year**.

  14. if you own a piece of equipment, you should be entitled to any and all information pertaining to how that equipment works and be able to diagnose and repair it yourself if you wish to do so. fuck john deere

  15. CommaComaChameleon on

    Talk about a sensationalist headline… oh no a tap on the wrist, what ever will John Deere do?

  16. Bob_the_peasant on

    Luckily the guy who made all these decisions is….

    *checks notes*

    Making more money as American Airlines c suite, because he jumped ship when he found out about all these lawsuits before the public

  17. > provide “the digital tools ​required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair” of tractors, combines, and other machinery for 10 years. 

    Yeah, at what cost though.

  18. $99mm and the gravy train ends.

    They probably made $500mm+ doing this over several decades.

    Some ‘punishment’.

    I want to see one of these that really *hurts*. Like enough to send the message that this will not make you money it will kill you.

  19. They make billions a year on bullshit repairs…this isn’t even an inconvenience.

    When will courts figure out that punishments need to be big enough to deter behavior?

  20. >The settlement also includes an agreement by Deere to provide “the digital tools ​required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair” of tractors, combines, and other machinery for 10 years.

    Why limit availability of digital tools to 10 years?
    Right to repair should last the lifetime of the machine, so digital tools should similarly be available for the machines’ lifetimes.

  21. PrinceCastanzaCapone on

    Funny how they now advertise that farmers have the right to repair, as if it is something they decided on their own because they are just a good well meaning company, instead of the truth, that they fought against it for years and were forced to allow that.