Further to the attention being paid to its practices by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has strongly criticised the company over its approach to sharing manuals and diagnostics software with owners of its products, John Deere once again finds itself in hot water
In this latest episode of the Right to Repair saga it has been revealed that the manufacturer has been subject to an investigation by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the past three years.
This investigation only came to light due, it appears, to the FTC requesting information from a company that did not want to share it, or not all that was asked for anyway.
Trade data
The company concerned is Hargrave & Associates Inc (HAI) of Alabama which works with trade associations to collect sales data from dealers and present it to other members of the association in anonymised form.
This information is highly sensitive and the company’s integrity relies upon not passing it on to anyone other than the client; the client in this case being the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) which, incidentally, owns HAI, having purchased it in 2018.
The AEM will be familiar to regular readers of Agriland as the source of sales data from America. It issues condensed monthly reports to media, while supplying its members with a more in-depth analysis of sales totals and trends.
The FTC has demanded that data gathered by HAI be turned over to the investigation particularly seven specifications requesting various data sets and reports relating to agricultural equipment from January 1, 2015, to present.
Notably, Specification 1 seeks confidential information submitted to HAI from members of the AEM which it is under a contractual obligation not to divulge, and so it has petitioned the US courts insisting that the FTC drops its demands for the data.
Deere drags its feet
What is also of note is that John Deere eventually agreed to allow customers access to its manuals and diagnostic tools in the Memorandum of Understanding of 2023, while it was under investigation by the FTC.
However, it was the apparent lack of enthusiasm in implementing this agreement that drew the ire of Senator Warren who noted that the company has experienced a 270% increase in profits since 2020, despite the various interruptions to trade.
While it is said that ‘Nothing runs like a Deere’, the hounds are snapping closer to the company’s heels than ever before, and it is not a happy pack.
