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John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

apnews.com

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Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#51

Post by acters »

taurath wrote: post #6

> Deere must pay $1 million collectively to the five states for antitrust enforcement costs and will be subject to strict compliance oversight for the next 10 years. $1 million fine for probably $10 billion in profit. I know what lesson I'd learn if my only personal value was maximizing shareholder value. The compliance part can be dealt with later.

The biggest loss to them is the right to repair stuff. They will be still making it exceptionally difficult to repair their stuff, and might even dip into exotic materials to make cheaper parts fail more often, but this is a bigger loss to them in the long run.

Unfortunately, I hate that they got away with such a low AF fine.

Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#53

Post by notamario »

e44858 wrote: post #25
snypher wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having operated a ~1995 7800 with flat glass and a ~2015 7270 with curved, I know which one I'm picking. Are automobiles using curved windshields so they have a stranglehold on the replacement windshield market? Your example doesn't pass my sniff test.

How is a curved window better on a tractor?

In this case, glare and reflections.

It’s also stronger.

Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#55

Post by xgulfie »

mothballed wrote: post #8
ggoo wrote: post #7

Bananas that stuff like this needs to get litigated in our society - if you asked 100 random people "should farmers be able to repair their equipment", you would get 100 yes's.

Until you tell them how easy it makes it to bypass emissions restrictions. My tractor was shipped with a screw turned down to Opening up John Deere tractors for right to repair virtually assures they will ~all be doing emissions deletes. Part of their lock-down was profit seeking, but the other half is that different vendors had different ideas interpretations of the law about how locked down the system had to be to…

Right to repair doesn't mean they'll get the ability to install custom firmware for example, it just means they'll get the ability to flash it with the signed, official firmware. It doesn't mean they can DPF delete, it means they can install a new one if the old one cracks.

Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#57

Post by al_borland »

It was always crazy to me that farm equipment was locked down. I almost understand yuppie buying an E-Class not working on their own car, but a farmer not able to work on his own tractor just felt so wrong. It made me wonder how John Deere was still so popular and seemingly beloved.

Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#58

Post by macintux »

ourmandave wrote: post #36
aceki wrote: post #10

As much as I hope this is a turning point, I’m not holding my breath. John Deere was one of the most egregious offenders in the right-to-repair movement, especially with how expensive their tractors are. There’s definitely a difference paying for the repair of a ten of thousands of dollars machine versus having to buy new AirPods. I’m no expert in US law, but my understanding is an FTC settlement doesn’t create any p…

The suit was brought be Dems in a 3-2 commission vote in Jan just before Trump took office. I'm not sure he cares since he's not running again and I don't see a way he can use it for graft.

> I'm not sure he cares since he's not running again

Don't underestimate the willingness of the GOP and the Supreme Court to kiss his feet.

> ...and I don't see a way he can use it for graft.

He's an expert at it.

Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#59

Post by SideQuark »

syntaxing wrote: post #20
snypher wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>probably $10 billion in profit Can you expand on this number or is it vibes-based? I'd be surprised if $10b profit was made from Service Advisor. Anecdata; we've had a handful of problems with our tractor "computers" recently, and we haven't been charged a dime by the dealer. Our newest is 2018 model so definitely not covered by warranty.

Not OP but I went through some data and John Deere makes 5B NET profit for the worse years. 10B for their best (only looking back 10 years). I wouldn’t be surprised these anticompetitive (as in anti “consumer”) has netted them north of 10B.

Last year was 5b net profit on 44b revenue. Attributing more than a tiny fraction of profit to the right to repair stuff is wild dreams, given the amount of physical goods they sell.

Nothing in their SEC filings shows anything mentionable about such claims. It does break out actual profit by company sectors.

Re: John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

#60

Post by ggoo »

GuB-42 wrote: post #47
ggoo wrote: post #7

Bananas that stuff like this needs to get litigated in our society - if you asked 100 random people "should farmers be able to repair their equipment", you would get 100 yes's.

Except it is not the right question in a market economy like ours. The right question is "what is the value (in dollars) of the right for farmers to repair their equipment". If John Deere values it more than farmers, then they will sell tractors that farmers can't repair on their own, hoping to earn more on repairs rather than easier to repair tractors that are more expensive up front. Basic market economy. It only n…

If you asked 100 people which question is more important, yours or mine, I don't think I'd get 100, but I'd probably get 90+. IMO, asking the dollar value of our rights isn't the "right" questions to be asking ourselves.
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