FTC v. Deere Settled July 8, 2026: What the Order Covers — and What It Doesn't

The short version: on July 8, 2026 the FTC and five states (Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin) filed a stipulated settlement order resolving their January 2025 lawsuit against Deere & Company over repair restrictions. As of mid-July 2026 the order is pending the district judge's signature — stipulated orders take force when approved. The order is about repair tools. It contains no farm-data-portability obligations. If you came here asking "does this get my yield data out of the platform?" — no, it doesn't; see our yield data portability page for what actually does.

What happened, dated

• Jan 15, 2025 — FTC + Illinois + Minnesota sued Deere (N.D. Ill., 3:25-cv-50017), alleging monopolization of the repair aftermarket for large tractors and combines: the fully functional Service ADVISOR tool was dealer-only, while farmers could buy only the more limited Customer Service ADVISOR (no ECU reprogramming, no DTAC repair-solution access). FTC release · complaint (PDF)
• Jun 9, 2025 — the court denied Deere's motion to dismiss. opinion (PDF)
• Jul 8, 2026 — settlement announced; stipulated order filed; Commission vote 2-0. The FTC's competition director said the settlement "enables farmers to do what they've done for generations—fix their own tractors and other farm equipment—without having to pay an authorized John Deere dealer to do it for them." FTC release

What the order requires (10 years, supervised)

Deere must give farmers and independent repair shops, on fair and reasonable terms, repair resources equivalent to what dealers get: read/clear/reset fault codes; reprogram electronic components (including pairing new parts); restart equipment out of emissions limp mode; and view technical manuals, product improvement programs and DTAC solutions. New repair resources are covered once rolled out to more than half the U.S. dealer network; dealers may not retaliate against self-repairers; the term extends if Deere violates it. FTC summary

Don't confuse it with the $99M class action

Separately, in April 2026 Deere agreed to a $99 million private class-action settlement (farmer suits dating to 2022) covering purchasers of Deere repair services from Jan 10, 2018 to May 18, 2026 — preliminary approval May 18, 2026, objections due Sep 14, 2026, fairness hearing Oct 29, 2026. Different case, different money, same theme. DTN

What it means for your data

Nothing in the FTC order obliges Deere to hand over agronomic data in open formats. Your yield maps still leave the machine in proprietary containers first (the JD-Data folder on a Gen4 USB export). The practical route to owning your data is the one on our yield data portability page — and if you have an export sitting on a USB stick right now, our free yield map import tool will read the ISOXML in it, in your browser, without uploading anything.

Status note: this page reflects sources through July 18, 2026; the order awaits final court approval — check the FTC case page for the signature.