John Deere reaches FTC settlement

(CNN)– The Federal Trade Commission and farm equipment manufacturer, John Deere, have reached a settlement in an anti-trust lawsuit.

The FTC and five states had accused John Deere of maintaining monopoly power for repair services for its Deere equipment.

Basically, the company had forced farmers to get their Deere equipment repairs done only at authorized dealers.

Now, farmers will have more options to repair their own John Deere tractors and farm equipment.

Under the agreement, John Deere will be required to provide the resources including software to read and reset codes to third-party repair shops for the next ten years.