Farmers tell FTC head federal right-to-repair policy needed

The head of the Federal Trade Commission joined Colorado officials and farmers for a roundtable focusing on the need for federal right-to-repair legislation July 26 in Longmont.

Alongside U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, both Democrats, Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, listened to feedback from farmers about the difficulties they have repairing farming equipment with little access to mechanics and parts as dealers continue to consolidate and limit their options.

The FTC enforces antitrust and consumer protection laws, which Khan said includes scrutinizing mergers and looking at anti-competitive practices.

“As part of that work, we’ve been scrutinizing illegal repair restrictions, and we’ve heard a lot, including from farmers, about how, as we see more and more products become more digitized, manufacturers have more and more opportunities to restrict how you all can fix your own products,” Khan said.

Members of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union shared stories about how they’ve had to get creative to get a machine working when a dealer isn’t able to send someone to fix the machine under warranty in a timely manner.

Titone, who has led three right-to-repair bills in the Legislature, said that while federal legislation is the ideal solution, “states are the incubators of new ideas, and Colorado is the place where we were able to sort of demonstrate what’s possible.”

Minnesota's right-to-repair law, called the “Digital Fair Repair Act,” went into effect on July 1. With its enactment, Minnesota joins California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York as the sixth state to enact a law protecting an equipment owner's right to repair their equipment as they see fit.

But Minnesota's law does not apply to agricultural equipment, meaning Colorado remains the only state to have enacted a law permitting farmers to repair farm equipment themselves.

Khan said Colorado has some of “the strongest right-to-repair legislation in the country.”

Tyler Garrett, director of government relations for RMFU, said right-to-repair policy is about protecting competition and freedom of choice. With two of the largest dealers serving Colorado and surrounding states merging last year, Garrett said farmers and ranchers have been left with little to no options.

“Right-to-repair legislation, simply put, would give farmers and ranchers the freedom to either repair their own equipment or to take their equipment to a mechanic of their choice to be repaired,” Garrett said.

Danny Wood, also a member of RMFU, said he bought a two-year-old combine harvester for his farm in Peetz, and he was assigned to a warranty dealer in Yuma, which is about 80 miles south. The first day he used the combine, it stopped working after about 100 yards.

The warranty dealer said it likely knew what the problem was, but a mechanic couldn’t come for five days to address it. When someone came to fix it, he discovered he needed to order additional parts, which would take another four or five days. And once the parts came in, Wood still needed to schedule a new appointment another four or five days later to get it repaired.