LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- A John Deere database will not be made available to the Federal Trade Commission, five states and a group of farmer plaintiffs in ongoing antitrust right-to-repair lawsuits, as a federal judge denied motions to compel Deere to provide the information.

All plaintiffs in the case had asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Illinois to require Deere to produce its dealer financial analysis data set and other information.

The dataset is a comprehensive spreadsheet that aggregates financial metrics including dealer profitability, revenues from parts sales and repair services, customer pricing, operating returns, market share, cost absorption and incentives.

According to a court order, the motions were denied as the court found that while the data may be relevant to the case, Deere had already provided needed data earlier in discovery.

"The court won't subject Deere to even the minimal burden of producing DFA data that adds no real value when Deere has essentially already produced the information," U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston said in an order.

During the final days of the Biden administration, the FTC filed a lawsuit alleging Deere of "anticompetitive conduct" that has for decades limited the ability of farmers and independent repair providers to repair Deere equipment.

The lawsuit alleges the practice forced farmers to instead rely on Deere's network of authorized dealers for repairs. Attorneys general for Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan joined in the lawsuit. In addition, about 16 farmer plaintiffs sued Deere before the action by the Biden administration.

The information sought is the company's most comprehensive record of dealer profitability and consolidates data on financial metrics.

Attorneys for Deere provided a list of data already released in the case that would be duplicated if the additional request were allowed.

"On the court's review, the primary difference between the pre-existing productions and DFA data is that the DFA aggregates agricultural equipment with unrelated business lines," Johnston said in his opinion.

"Whereas Deere's prior productions typically isolate agricultural products. To the extent the DFA contains something more than the pre-existing productions, its addition decreases its importance to the litigation. Perhaps the plaintiffs' opinion witnesses would disagree with that conclusion. But scouring the record and finding nothing new, the court won't delegate its discretion to opinion witnesses."

To date, the lawsuits against Deere have alleged the company monopolized the repair-service market for John Deere agricultural equipment with onboard central computers known as ECUs.

After the Biden administration sued John Deere, the company issued a rare response to the FTC action and vowed to defend itself "vigorously." The FTC lawsuit asked the court to make available to owners of large tractors and combines, as well as independent repair shops, access to Deere's "fully functional Service ADVISOR repair tool and any other repair resources available to authorized dealers."

The FTC also asked the court for a permanent injunction against the company.

The FTC lawsuit came about because of an investigation by the Biden administration that began in 2022 when the National Farmers Union and state-level farmer unions filed a complaint with the FTC.

The FTC lawsuit attempts to bring four counts against John Deere, including monopolization of the restricted repair services market, using an unfair method of competition in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as well as violations of the Illinois Antitrust Act and the Minnesota Antitrust Law.

The farmer plaintiffs from across the country have alleged John Deere violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and seek damages for farmers who paid for repairs from John Deere dealers beginning on Jan. 12, 2018, to the present.

Read more on DTN:

-- "John Deere Fires Back at FTC Lawsuit," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- "FTC, States Sue Deere on Repair Rights," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- "Court Denies Deere on Right to Repair," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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