The FTC Settlement With John Deere Is a Huge Win for the Right-to-Repair Movement
The FTC Settlement With John Deere Is a Huge Win for the Right-to-Repair Movement
美国联邦贸易委员会与约翰迪尔达成的和解协议是“维修权”运动的重大胜利
On Wednesday, the US Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with tractor manufacturer John Deere over a 2025 lawsuit that accused the company of behavior that “unlawfully acquired and maintained monopoly power in markets for repair services for Deere farm equipment.” 周三，美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）宣布与拖拉机制造商约翰迪尔（John Deere）就 2025 年的一起诉讼达成和解。该诉讼指控该公司存在“非法获取并维持其在迪尔农用设备维修服务市场垄断地位”的行为。
The full statement lays out obligations for John Deere’s repair services, requiring the company to give farmers and third-party repair shops access to the same equipment and repair resources it provides to official John Deere dealers. This includes software capabilities, such as reading and resetting codes and pairing with other software, which customers have long had limited access to, creating delays when diagnosing equipment problems. Delayed fixes can mean delayed harvests, which many farmers saw as a fundamental threat to their livelihoods. 完整的声明列出了约翰迪尔在维修服务方面的义务，要求该公司向农民和第三方维修店提供与官方经销商相同的设备和维修资源。这包括软件功能，例如读取和重置代码以及与其他软件配对等。长期以来，客户对这些功能的访问权限受限，导致设备故障诊断出现延误。维修延误可能意味着收割延误，许多农民认为这对他们的生计构成了根本性威胁。
Under the agreement, John Deere will be required to provide this level of access, equipment, and services for the next 10 years, monitored by the FTC. 根据协议，约翰迪尔必须在未来 10 年内提供上述级别的访问权限、设备和服务，并接受 FTC 的监督。
“After years of fighting for the right to repair, this order gives farmers real hope,” Willie Cade, a board member of the repair advocacy organization Repair.org, wrote in an email to WIRED. “But promises on paper must become tools in farmers’ hands, and we will be watching implementation every step of the way.” “经过多年的维修权抗争，这项命令给了农民真正的希望，”维修倡导组织 Repair.org 的董事会成员威利·凯德（Willie Cade）在给《连线》（WIRED）杂志的电子邮件中写道。“但纸面上的承诺必须转化为农民手中的工具，我们将全程监督其执行情况。”
Farmers have been fighting against John Deere’s repair practices for more than a decade, but the FTC began its fight in 2021, led by then-chair Lina Khan under the Biden administration. In April, John Deere agreed to pay out $99 million in a separate class action lawsuit brought against the company in 2022. Repair and consumer advocates say this FTC settlement does far more to help farmers than a payout did. 农民们与约翰迪尔的维修限制政策已经抗争了十多年，而 FTC 则是在拜登政府领导下，由时任主席莉娜·汗（Lina Khan）牵头，于 2021 年开始介入。今年 4 月，约翰迪尔同意在 2022 年针对该公司提起的另一起集体诉讼中支付 9900 万美元赔偿金。维修和消费者权益倡导者表示，此次 FTC 的和解协议对农民的帮助远超金钱赔偿。
John Deere has maintained that it already has robust repair resources for its customers, including service manuals and diagnostic equipment. In John Deere’s press release, the company says the settlement is in line with what it has been doing all along, saying that “the agreement reinforces Deere’s continued innovation toward more flexible repair options, emphasizing increased access and transparency for customers. It formalizes Deere’s ongoing commitment to expanding access to diagnostic and repair tools.” 约翰迪尔一直坚称其已为客户提供了完善的维修资源，包括服务手册和诊断设备。在约翰迪尔的新闻稿中，该公司表示此次和解与其一直以来的做法相符，并称“该协议加强了迪尔在提供更灵活维修方案方面的持续创新，强调了为客户增加访问权限和透明度。它将迪尔在扩大诊断和维修工具访问权限方面的持续承诺正式化了。”
The consumer advocacy group US PIRG issued a statement about the settlement, citing the organization’s 2022 official complaint to the FCC about John Deere’s repair policies. 消费者权益倡导组织美国公共利益研究小组（US PIRG）就此次和解发表了声明，并提到了该组织 2022 年就约翰迪尔维修政策向联邦通信委员会（FCC）提交的正式投诉。
“We should be able to fix our own stuff,” wrote PIRG’s Right to Repair campaign director Nathan Proctor. “This settlement from the FTC gives farmers more and better options to repair their equipment. It is a win for farmers and all of us who want a more fixable world.” “我们应该有权修理自己的东西，”PIRG 维修权运动负责人内森·普罗克特（Nathan Proctor）写道。“FTC 的这项和解协议为农民提供了更多、更好的设备维修选择。这对农民以及所有希望世界变得更易于维修的人来说，都是一场胜利。”