Comment: US FTC’s John Deere probe ratchets up antitrust scrutiny over right to repair
By Chris May ( October 18, 2024, 00:39 GMT | Comment) -- Today’s revelation of a US Federal Trade Commission probe into the repair policies of global construction equipment and tractor manufacturing giant Deere & Co. is the latest development in an ongoing saga of state legislation, class action litigation and regulatory scrutiny over so-called right to repair issues that cover technologies from tractors to smartphones. The agency’s push under the Biden administration to expand the reach of competition enforcement through Section 5 of the FTC Act offers both a unique enforcement tool to attack anticompetitive repair restrictions and a risk of stalled momentum should a change in political tides shuffle priorities in a new White House and Congress.
Today’s revelation of a US Federal Trade Commission probe into the repair policies of global construction equipment and tractor manufacturing giant Deere & Co. is the latest development in an ongoing saga of state legislation, class action litigation and regulatory scrutiny over so-called right to repair issues that cover technologies from tractors to smartphones....
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