By Bob Tita
Deere has spent years in the crosshairs of farmers who have demanded easier ways to fix their own equipment or get it repaired by an independent mechanic. Now, the fight is moving off the farm.
A Chicago landscaping contractor sued Deere on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Illinois, accusing the company of many of the same antitrust violations alleged in a recently-settled $99 million lawsuit filed by farmers.
Repair-rights advocates hope to elevate the new complaint to class-action status, which potentially would allow thousands of owners of Deere construction and forestry equipment to join as plaintiffs.
The landscaper, Christy Webber & Co,. accused Deere of unfairly restricting what owners or independent mechanics can fix on the company's machines.
The main issue in the suit is the same as in the farm equipment case: that Deere restricts access to the software to repair construction and forestry equipment, forcing machine owners to use authorized, franchised dealers for fixes. The practice allows dealers to charge high prices for service and replacement parts, the suit said.
"Deere dealers have exclusive access to the necessary software and information that allow for diagnosis and completion of all repairs," the complaint said. "In so doing, Deere has prevented meaningful competition from those construction and forestry equipment owners who otherwise could repair equipment themselves and from independent repair providers."
Deere didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.
Deere last month reached a settlement on a 2022 "right-to-repair" lawsuit filed by farmers to gain more control over repairs to farm equipment. Along with the $99 million settlement fund for plaintiffs, Illinois-based Deere agreed to expand access to its software for diagnosing problems and guiding fixes. Deere wouldn't have to admit to any wrongdoing under the deal, and said the settlement allows farmers to do more repairs themselves.
The case was watched by right-to-repair advocates waging similar fights against the repair practices of auto companies, smartphone manufacturers and other consumer products. Deere's construction equipment uses some of the same powertrain components as Deere's farm machinery.
The Deere farm-equipment settlement has yet to be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case. The construction-equipment complaint is filed in the same northern Illinois district court as the farm-equipment case.
Construction and forestry-equipment sales accounts for about $11 billion annually at Deere, or a quarter of the company's equipment sales.
Christy Webber's suit said it owns or leases nearly 50 Deere earth-moving machines. The company has its own mechanics to maintain and repair the equipment, but says they are limited in the work they can do. The machines' operations and components are controlled and monitored by electronic control units, and onboard software requires specialized software tools to identify problems and prescribe ways to fix them.
Deere in recent years has rolled out software tools for farm and construction equipment users or independent mechanics to do more of their own repairs. Yet like the farmers before them, Christy Webber's complaint said the tools are inferior to the dealers' software tools, forcing equipment users to continue relying on their dealers.
Christy Webber said a dealer's service department typically takes longer to complete repairs than the landscaper's in-house mechanics. When the company's machines are out of service, it often ends up renting replacement machines from its Deere dealer, adding to the cost of repairs.
Write to Bob Tita at robert.tita@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 15, 2026 13:59 ET (17:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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