The department's antitrust division says it wants to prevent "anti-competitive abuses."
Willie Cade is on the board of The Repair Association" which runs the Repair.org website. He says the justice department seems to side with the plaintiffs. "And disputed John Deere's claim that everybody knows that only John Deere dealers can fix things. So they're not an illegal monopoly. And the Department of Justice goes, no, you're still running an illegal monopoly."
Deere may claim it complies with federal law and court precedents. But Cade says the company is doing just enough to make it look that way.
"But they don't nearly follow the law of the Clean Air Act. Which says if you provide tools, including software, to repair emission systems for dealers, you have to provide it to independents and owners. And what John Deere is now providing is a limited set, not the complete set of tools."
The Justice Department submitted the statement of interest (below) last week, to the judge overseeing more than a dozen "right to repair" lawsuits filed against John Deere. The federal cases were consolidated and will be heard in the Northern District of Illinois.
