“Those policies required equipment owners and independent repair providers to pay higher prices for any needed services.”
Deere spent years locking farmers out of the software needed to fix tractors they already paid for. It took an FTC antitrust suit and five state attorneys general to force the change, and even now it only lasts ten years under supervision. This is the second repair settlement Deere has swallowed in 2026, after a $99 million class action in April. Companies do not stop rent-seeking because it is wrong. They stop when someone makes them.