Deere & Co. and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have reached a settlement regarding ajoint lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed by the FTC and five states, alleged that Deere illegally restricted farmers and independent repair providers from repairing Deere agricultural equipment.

Under the settlement, the tractor manufacturer agreed to provide farmers and independent repair shops with the same equipment repair resources (including software) currently offered to authorized Deere dealers, the FTC stated in apress release. The requirement is effective for 10 years, and the FTC and plaintiff states (including Illinois, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) will oversee compliance.

"Today's settlement allows farmers to do what they have done for generations—repair their own tractors and other agricultural equipment without having to pay authorized John Deere dealers to do it," said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, in a statement on Wednesday. "The settlement with Deere will help lower costs for American farmers. The FTC will continue to combat anticompetitive restrictions that harm Americans' right to repair."

According to the FTC, Deere is the only manufacturer of software repair tools capable of performing all electronic repairs on Deere equipment. However, the company has historically only allowed its authorized dealers to use these tools, "forcing farmers to rely on authorized dealers for many necessary repairs," the FTC said.

As a result, "Deere illegally acquired and maintained monopoly power in the market for repair services of Deere agricultural equipment," the agency said. This practice allegedly led to service delays and increased repair costs for farmers.

The repair services Deere must provide to farmers and independent repair shops include: reading, clearing, and resetting electronic fault codes; reprogramming electronic components; restarting machines after emissions-related shutdowns; and accessing and searching technical manuals and other information.

The Moline, Illinois-based company must also provide any repair resources it offers to more than 50% of its authorized dealers in the future to farmers and independent repair providers as well. Additionally, the company must inform its authorized dealers of the availability of these resources and make this information available to the public.

The settlement "is great news for our customers and for the future of Deere equipment support," said Denver Caldwell, Vice President of Aftermarket and Customer Support at Deere, in a statement. "Producers and equipment operators need flexible, world-class capabilities to maintain and repair their machines; we are and will continue to deliver on that expectation."

In recent years, Deere has faced multiple "right to repair" lawsuits. These lawsuits stem from consumers' desire to repair products themselves (from phones to tractors) rather than relying on authorized dealers or original manufacturers.

New lawshave attempted to address this issue. However,right-to-repair advocatessay that as products become increasingly technological and harder for consumers and independent repair shops to work on, there is still more work to be done.

In April of this year, Deere & Co.agreed to pay $99 millionto settle a federal class-action lawsuit alleging it conspired to monopolize its repair services market. The settlement applies to individuals who purchased large equipment from Deere since January 10, 2018, and paid authorized dealers for repair services.