LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- John Deere must turn over communications it had with third-party equipment and other trade associations, a federal judge ruled this week in an ongoing antitrust right-to-repair lawsuit.

Deere argued in a January 2025 motion with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that a variety of communications the company had with trade associations were privileged and not required to be turned over to farmer plaintiffs.

The documents challenged by the plaintiffs in the case relate to discussions among trade association members and counsel regarding fact gathering to defend equipment design, analyzing draft language in right-to-repair position statements and other issues, according to court documents.

A group of 16 farmers sued Deere, alleging that the company violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and are seeking damages for farmers who paid for repairs from John Deere dealers beginning on Jan. 12, 2018, to the present. The farmers alleged Deere has monopolized the repair service market for its equipment with onboard central computers known as engine control units.

Attorneys for Deere said in January 2025 that the company had asserted that information shared between members of the same trade association, as well as between members of differing associations related to right-to-repair legislation, is protected from disclosure.

In addition, Deere maintained that information shared between trade associations that do not share common membership also is privileged.

The Deere communications in question include those with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association. John Deere is a member of both, according to court documents.

In an order handed down on Monday, U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston disagreed with Deere's argument.

Allowing Deere to "jam potentially thousands of entities" into the "attorney-client circle" would defeat the common-interest privilege rule, Johnston said.

"Deere didn't meet its burden of showing the narrow-shared interest exception applies," the court said in its order. "So, the court finds that, to the extent Deere withheld documents with trade associations under a shared-interest rationale, Deere must produce them."

Attorneys corresponded with various trade associations and their members, Johnston said in the order, and the plaintiffs asserted that hundreds of entities comprised those associations.

"It's true that, in some general sense, all members share interests in defeating certain litigation or complying with regulations," Johnston said, "as does nearly every company. But the doctrine construes a 'shared legal interest' far more narrowly, applying it when the interests (and perhaps the communicators) are essentially identical."

The case remains in the discovery phase that is expected to last until May 19, 2025, according to court documents.

Just before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Federal Trade Commission under former President Joe Biden and the states of Minnesota and Illinois sued John Deere in the same court, alleging "anticompetitive conduct" on the company's part, https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Read more on DTN:

"Senator Questions Deere CEO on Repairs," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

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

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