Ellison Brings Suit Against John Deere

The Minnesota Attorney General alleges that Deere's withholding of repair equipment and software constitutes an illegal monopoly.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KVRR)  – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has been hearing from his constituents for quite a while that John Deere makes farmers’ lives needlessly more expensive and difficult through some of their business practices.

This week, he took decisive action, joining Illinois AG Kwame Raoul and the Federal Trade Commission in a lawsuit against John Deere for monopolistic actions.

Ellison says that the company withholds proprietary repair software and parts, only allowing them to be purchased at authorized Deere locations. In many cases, that means farmers have to travel further and spend more money to fix the equipment they’ve already purchased, while simultaneously starving small repair shops of a source of income.

On top of that, Ellison says that other states, such as Colorado, have tried to fix the problem with legislative action, but were met with indifference by the company.

“I’m getting reports that they just don’t listen,” said Ellison.

“The corporate entity’s just unresponsive, and is like, ‘Yeah, whatever, little guy. We’re an international organization, you’re just little you, trying to farm corn and beans on your little plot, and deal with it.'”

The company has issued a statement in response to the suit, which says in part that the lawsuit is based on “fatally flawed legal theories.”