F500 Industrial Machinery · Construction and Farm Machinery · Regulatory action
Deere (John Deere)
Headline
The John Deere finding is not privacy but repair, and it is one of the sharpest ownership questions in this tracker: Deere's software locks and diagnostic restrictions have been the central case in the right-to-repair…
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
The John Deere finding is not privacy but repair, and it is one of the sharpest ownership questions in this tracker: Deere's software locks and diagnostic restrictions have been the central case in the right-to-repair movement, with farmers arguing they cannot fix equipment they own outright without authorised dealer software. That is a terms-and-conditions finding in the purest sense - a purchased physical object whose usability is governed by a licence. Deere signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation on repair access, and the FTC and state legislatures have engaged the issue. Deere equipment also generates detailed farm operational and yield data, which raises a separate and underexamined question about who owns agronomic data generated on a farmer's own land.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
Not independently confirmed this pass for standard consumer purchase agreements; the remedies in both settlements specifically focus on compelling ACCESS to repair tools rather than a traditional arbitration-clause dispute.
Data sharing
MAJOR, DIRECTLY CONSUMER/FARMER-RELEVANT 'RIGHT TO REPAIR' FINDINGS — TWO SEPARATE CASES: (1) A PRIVATE CLASS ACTION (filed 2022): alleged Deere withheld repair software and conspired with its authorized-dealer network to force farmers into using only Deere-approved repair services, allowing 'supracompetitive' pricing. Deere agreed to a $99 MILLION settlement (announced April 6, 2026; preliminarily approved, with a final approval hearing set for Oct. 29, 2026), covering farmers who paid Deere/authorized dealers for large agricultural equipment repairs since Jan 2018, PLUS injunctive commitments on access to repair resources and diagnostic tools — Deere maintains 'no finding of wrongdoing.' (2) A SEPARATE, government-brought FTC LAWSUIT (filed Jan 2025 in N.D. Ill.; the FTC's release lists Illinois and Minnesota as co-plaintiffs, and five states — Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — were parties by the 2026 settlement) specifically alleging Deere's practices 'driven up equipment repair costs for farmers while depriving [them] of the ability to make timely repairs' — Deere announced a settlement of this SEPARATE case too (July 8, 2026; the proposed order requires approval by Judge Iain D. Johnston), agreeing to provide the SAME diagnostic software, manuals, and parts-pairing tools available to authorized dealers for the next 10 YEARS, plus $1 million toward state legal costs.
Fees and billing
The CORE ALLEGATION IN BOTH CASES IS DIRECTLY ABOUT FEES/PRICING: farmers forced into higher-cost authorized-dealer repairs instead of cheaper independent or self-service options — a direct, quantifiable consumer-cost harm.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. Not verified this pass. If publicly traded: SEC Form 10-K cover page gives the official corporate address; the Secretary of State business-entity search in the state of incorporation gives the registered agent, which must accept service. If private: the state registered agent is usually the only reliable route.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy deere.com/en/privacy-and-data/ | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Terms of service deere.com/en/legal/ | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Website No URL recorded | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No HQ state on file, so no state statute applies by headquarters.