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House Bill 3061, introduced as the “Digital Right to Repair Act”
in February by Democratic Rep. Michelle Mussman of Schaumburg,
would mandate that manufacturers, by 2022, provide farmers with
the same diagnostic materials available to official repair
providers. It would also require the manufacturers to make parts
necessary for repair, including software, available for
purchase.
The legislation comes after the release of a report by the U.S.
PIRG that alleges farmers are unable to sufficiently repair
tractors purchased from John Deere and other manufacturers
because they withhold the software necessary to do so.
“The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, of which John Deere
is a prominent member, promised that by 2021, they would give
farmers the necessary tools to fix their machinery. However,
Deere has fallen short of that commitment, so farmers – and all
Americans, who rely on them to produce food – are worse off,”
U.S. PIRG Education Fund Right to Repair Advocate Kevin O'Reilly
said in a release announcing the report.
The report says for countless generations farmers have been able
to independently repair equipment once purchased from
manufacturers, but new developments in technology have shifted
the status quo to disadvantage farmers. Unable to make repairs
themselves, farmers are required to take equipment back to the
dealership or associated repair facilities, “leading to delays
of hours to weeks.”
“Without the software tools needed to diagnose problems, install
replacement parts and authorize repairs, the engagement or
failure of any sensor or control system forces a farmer to
either haul their machine into the nearest dealership or wait
for a field technician to arrive to complete the repair,” the
report reads.
The report also claims that sensors and controller networks,
which have become necessary for tractors and combine harvesters
to function, are the highest points of failure on farming
machinery as opposed to hardware damage that can be fixed by the
farmer.
According to U.S. PIRG, this is intentional to give
manufacturers a repair monopoly. Their evidence is the lucrative
nature of the repair industry. From 2013 to 2019, John Deere’s
annual sales of parts rose to $6.7 billion, a 22 percent
increase, while its annual sales of equipment fell by 19 percent
to $23.7 billion.
Manufacturers have opposed providing the software on several
grounds. They say it could jeopardize proprietary information
and lead to the theft of trade secrets tied to programming.
Giving farmers access to repair software could also allow them
to make illegal modifications to their equipment, potentially
leading to some farmers overriding safety and environmental
controls placed in the vehicle software.
The Digital Right to Repair Act, which awaits assignment to a
substantial committee in the House, includes a provision that
prevents the legislation from being made “to require an original
equipment manufacturer to divulge a trade secret… except as
necessary to provide documentation, parts, and tools on fair and
reasonable terms.”
Farming groups have increased their pressure on manufacturers to
concede the right to repair, using the threat of legislation to
reach an agreement.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the American Farm
Bureau Federation voted in 2020 to throw its weight behind
right-to-repair legislation if manufacturers didn’t reach an
agreement with farmers and independent repair contractors by
2021.
Alongside Illinois and HB 3061, 20 other states are considering
bills mandating the right to repair in their legislatures for a
total of 32 bills.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
news service covering state government and distributed to more
than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the
Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation.
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