ROCKFORD — Farming and heavy equipment maker Deere & Co. has agreed to pay $99 million and offer other concessions to farmers under a deal to end years of legal actions accusing the company of allegedly illegally installing onboard central computers that block farmers and other Deere customers from repairing and maintaining their own equipment, allegedly forcing them to pay Deere to fix their equipment at inflated rates.
The settlement was announced April 6 by Deere and revealed in a court filing in federal court in Rockford.
Under the deal, the company notably has agreed to pay $99 million into a fund, which would be used to pay a class of as many as 200,000 farmers, and used to pay the attorneys who led the class action.
According to a brief filed in support of the motion for settlement, those lawyers could request up to one-third of the settlement, or about $32 million, for themselves, as attorney fees.
Most of the remainder would be divided up among perhaps hundreds of thousands of eligible farmers participating in the class action.
The deal comes about four years after Deere was initially targeted by class action lawsuits from farmers seeking to enforce their so-called right to repair their equipment.
The lawsuits all centered on similar claims: That Deere violated federal antitrust law by monopolizing the repair market for its agricultural products using its software program, known as Service Advisor. According to the complaints, Deere has designed its machinery to be difficult, if not impossible to repair without access to the Service Advisor programs. And Deere has allegedly restricted access to Service Advisor only to its dealers and Deere-authorized service shops, allegedly forcing farmers to sometimes travel longer distances and pay substantially higher prices to repair and service their farm machinery.
The complaints note Deere’s repair business is “three to six times more profitable than its sales of original equipment.” The complaint asserts Deere’s alleged actions to “corner the market” on the repair and maintenance of its equipment has meant farmers and other Deere equipment owners are forced to pay millions of dollars more to fix their tractors than they otherwise would.
Deere is facing at least 13 lawsuits over the matter from farmers and agricultural businesses.
In addition to the farmers' class actions, Deere has also faced regulatory antitrust actions lodged by the federal government and states.
Those governmental legal actions were launched in January 2025, just before President Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term.
The Federal Trade Commission under then-President Joe Biden was joined in the action by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and his counterparts from the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Arizona.
The governments' actions are centered on the same claims as the farmers' lawsuits, claiming Deere allegedly monopolized the service and repair for Deere equipment, allowing the company to allegedly improperly boost its profits.
Those actions remain pending in Rockford federal court.
In addition to the payment, Deere has also agreed to give farmers and other owners of Deere Large Ag Equipment access for 10 years to "the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair" of their equipment "without the need to use an authorized Dealer."
In outlining the settlement, the plaintiffs' lawyers called the settlement "historic" and “excellent.”
They particularly trumpeted the right to repair access elements of the deal. But they also defended the monetary amount.
They estimated the total possible "overcharge" damages at $190 million to $387 million.
So, by obtaining about $100 million in payment from Deere, they said the deal amounts to a recovery of 26-53% of the alleged estimated possible damages, which they said was "far more than the typical antitrust settlement, which is 5% to 15%."
They have asked a federal judge to grant preliminary approval to the deal and allow them to begin the process of identifying and notifying potential class members who may be eligible for a cut of the settlement funds.
The plaintiffs' attorneys also indicated they will submit a formal request for attorney fees in the coming weeks.
The plaintiffs' legal team includes attorneys from the firms of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, of Burlingame, California; Wexler Boley & Elgersma, of Chicago; Gustafson Gluek, of Minneapolis and San Diego; Foote Mielke Chavez & O'Neil, of Geneva; and Williams McCarthy, of Rockford.
In announcing the settlement, for its part, Deere noted the deal included no admission of wrongdoing by the company.
In a prepared statement, Denver Caldwell, Deere's Vice President for Aftermarket and Customer Support, said: "As we continue to innovate industry leading equipment and technology solutions supported by our world-class dealer network, we are equally committed to providing customers and other service providers with access to repair resources. We're pleased that this resolution allows us to move forward and remain focused on what matters most – serving our customers."
