Independent repair shops, parts suppliers, diagnostic tool makers, and equipment-owning operators — especially farmers and fleet managers — are the real buyers here. Their pain is operational: manufacturer software locks, telematics gatekeeping, and dealer-only diagnostic tools are literally stopping them from fixing equipment they already paid for, costing real money every hour a machine sits idle.
On July 8, 2026, the FTC and five state attorneys general settled their antitrust lawsuit against John Deere, requiring the company to give farmers and independent repair providers the same diagnostic software and tools available to authorized dealers for the next 10 years — directly opening a market that was previously locked shut.
Farmers lose an estimated $4.2 billion every year due to repair restrictions from manufacturers, according to U.S. PIRG — that concentrated loss is the exact revenue pool now being unlocked for independent shops and parts suppliers as right-to-repair laws pass in more states.
Right-to-repair legislation has now been introduced in all 50 states, and in January 2026 alone more than 33 bills were filed in 13 states — plus the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce advanced the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026 codifying independent shop data access for vehicles under 14,000 lbs, creating a compliance deadline every manufacturer must now plan around.
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