This Is How John Deere Robs Farmers of Billions of Dollars

And how average people are fighting for their right to repair.

by Yaseen al-Sheikh, More Perfect Union

Why is it so hard to fix the things that we own? The difficulty is largely by design, thanks to industry practices that require consumers to rely on manufacturers.

The “right to repair” is a pretty simple concept: if you buy something, you ought to be able to repair it yourself or at least take it to someone you trust to fix it. In the digital age, however, software is king and companies can withhold certain information or tools from you by putting it behind a paywall or proprietary repair shop.

Companies also pursue patents for proprietary parts at breakneck speed nowadays, effectively locking out local mechanics and car shops from being able to procure these parts for fixes. As a result, your local mechanic can’t diagnose or solve any car problem related to proprietary parts or software. Some companies now even claim that you don’t actually own all of the parts that make up the product you purchased. 

This extends even to more commercial items, like ice cream machines and tractors, such as a damaged John Deere model owned by Walter, a rancher from Montana. 

“Do you think it's fair that farmers and ranchers will pay $300,000 or $1,000,000 to purchase a combine or a tractor…to not own it? We're not leasing it. We're buying that,” Walter told More Perfect Union. “We thought when we bought that tractor, that we bought that tractor lock, stock, and barrel.”

One of these practices, in which a company requires specific software in order for a part to be installed during a repair, is called “parts pairing.” This strategy was innovated by Apple, which also uses proprietary screws to make it harder to even open your iPhone, and it makes the company billions in additional revenue. This method has been replicated by hundreds of other companies including Microsoft, Harley Davidson, and Taylor Company, which sees more than 25 percent of its revenue come from repairs to their ice cream machines alone. That last one is why your local McDonalds always has a broken soft serve machine.

John Deere holds more than a quarter of the global market share for tractors. Since Walter’s modern tractor is reliant upon proprietary software from John Deere, he is unable to repair it on his own and has to endure long wait times. As crops can quickly go bad if not attended to at the opportune time, parts pairing could leave Walter losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, let alone the cost of repairs.

These repair monopolies have come under increasing scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. Likewise, farmers have repeatedly sued John Deere in recent years for what they allege are unlawful restrictions on the ability to do maintenance and repair on their equipment, and this year Colorado passed the first law in the country guaranteeing the right to repair agricultural equipment. 

The FTC has issued multiple forceful statements on the issue of right to repair as it relates to your warranty, and as more jurisdictions have considered their own digital right to repair legislation, giants like Apple and Microsoft have begun to loosen their grip on consumers’ ability to use third-party repair shops. 

As more lawmakers and regulators tackle consumer protections in an age of increasingly complex relationships that exist between software and hardware, More Perfect Union took a closer look at the companies making it so difficult to fix the things we buy — and how average people are fighting to break the monopolistic practices keeping it that way.