Despite the apparent victory of campaigners working to preserve the right to repair in America, John Deere has once more been accused of obstructing farmers ability to fix equipment they own.
In the latest round of the ongoing dispute, Senator Elizabeth Warren has set out in a lengthy letter addressed to the chair of Deere and Company, John C. May, two major concerns.
The first is that the company is not adhering to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in January of 2023, in which it pledged to allow farmers full access to to the tools and manuals required to repair John Deere tractors.
The second is that by omitting certain items of information from its manuals, the company may well have acted illegally, specifically in relation to emissions standards and The Clean Air Act.
Two levels of repair
With regards to the MoU, PIRG, a consumer advocates group claims that the tool made available to farmers by John Deere “withholds, redacts or obfuscates functions and information required to independently complete many repairs”.
According to the group, there appears to be two levels of repair tool provided by John Deere, an all-inclusive version for its dealers and a less comprehensive one for farmers and independent mechanics.
PIRG claims that the lesser tool lacks three key functions compared to the tool the official dealerships receive from the company.
The first is that basic diagnostic information is being withheld or is not readily available to independent service providers.
The second is that the troubleshooting guides provided to official dealers are not included in the customer level tool, and this includes updates on manufacturing defects that have come to the company’s notice.
The final issue, is something that has come to the fore with the advancement of digital systems in tractors.
It turns out that many parts must be electronically paired to tractors, Deere calls the software drivers (much like printer drivers) payload files and they may only be installed with the higher level tool.
Environmental Protection Agency
Senator Warren has also drawn the company’s attention to the words of the Clean Air Act, which clearly states that any and all information needed to make use of the emission control diagnostics system should be made available to franchised dealers or other persons engaged in the repair, diagnosing, or servicing of motor vehicles, which includes tractors.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has gone so far as to note that John Deere is not presently in compliance with EPA regulations.
Up until now, the results gained by the right to repair movement have been based on voluntary agreements and grudgingly granted concessions from the manufacturers.
However, now that the EPA has become involved, campaigners may well have the solid backing of an established legal framework, although it will not cover all of the tractors functions, merely those relating to the engine and emissions.
