(By You Yunting) In July 2026, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a litigation settlement with agricultural machinery giant John Deere. Under the settlement, John Deere will, over the next decade, provide farm equipment owners and independent repair shops with diagnostic, reprogramming and repair resources equivalent to those offered to its authorized dealers on fair and reasonable terms. The case expands the scope of the Right to Repair from physical spare parts to open software access and has drawn global attention. Today, we will discuss whether this settlement will impact the right to repair for China’s new energy vehicles (NEVs).
Readers may be disappointed by my conclusion: China’s NEV industry faces fierce market competition, and manufacturers rely partly on after-sales services to sustain profitability. Therefore, from a policy perspective, regulators are unlikely to force Chinese NEV manufacturers to open their after-sales systems in the short term. Even so, the John Deere settlement clearly charts the path toward a genuine right to repair.
1. What issues did the Deere case resolve?
In January 2025, the FTC, together with attorneys general from five U.S. states, filed an antitrust lawsuit against John Deere. The complaint alleged that John Deere’s unlawful practices restricted farmers and independent repair shops from servicing its agricultural equipment, including tractors. While farmers and independent technicians could otherwise perform self-repairs or hire third-party services, John Deere imposed technical and policy restrictions that forced equipment owners to rely exclusively on its authorized dealers, driving up repair costs and limiting consumer choices.
The core dispute of the case lies in manufacturers leveraging technical lock-in to monopolize aftermarket repair rights. John Deere reserved critical software for electronic repairs exclusively for its authorized dealers. As a result, even experienced independent repair technicians with solid hardware maintenance skills were unable to access underlying fault data, match new components via professional software, or lift system safety restrictions required for normal repairs, leaving them fully reliant on John Deere’s official service channels. This practice has not only substantially raised repair costs but also prolonged equipment downtime.
The two parties recently reached a settlement. The official consent order requires John Deere to provide farmers and independent repair shops with the same service resources available to authorized dealers on fair and reasonable terms for the next decade. The covered services include reading and clearing electronic fault codes, component reprogramming and pairing, disabling vehicle limp mode, and full access to technical manuals and troubleshooting guidelines. John Deere is prohibited from discriminating against or retaliating against users who opt for independent repairs and will be subject to continuous regulatory oversight. This consent order grants independent repair shops official access to the core software capabilities required for standard repair work, enabling consumers to enjoy lower service prices via market competition. The case sets a standard template for the FTC’s right-to-repair law enforcement and carries strong precedential value for future similar cases across the United States.
2. China’s NEV industry has a similar regulatory framework.
In fact, Chinese regulatory authorities have long put in place a similar regulatory framework for the domestic automotive industry. Article 3 of the Measures for the Implementation and Administration of the Disclosure of Automobile Repair Technical Information(“2016 Measures”), jointly issued in 2016 by the Ministry of Transport and seven other central ministries, explicitly stipulates that automobile manufacturers shall disclose repair technical information to repair operators and consumers in a non-discriminatory, unbiased and timely manner at reasonable prices. The disclosure catalogue covers not only traditional vehicle parts but also core NEV-related resources including batteries, electric motors, circuit diagrams, fault codes, diagnostic parameters and dedicated repair tools. The Measures also specify detailed implementation and disclosure rules.
In addition, Article 9 of the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines of the Anti-Monopoly Committee of the State Council on the Automobile Industry clearly stipulates that automobile suppliers with a dominant market position in the branded aftermarket shall not, without legitimate grounds, restrict access to repair technical information, testing equipment and professional repair tools, nor impose exorbitant access fees.
3. Reasons why the U.S. right-to-repair model cannot be fully implemented in China at this stage.
However, the aforementioned regulatory framework has not been fully implemented in China’s NEV industry. The core barrier is the absence of unified open standards for NEV software and cryptographic keys. Modern new energy vehicles are essentially “smart terminals on four wheels” with highly software-integrated systems. Even if independent repair shops obtain officially disclosed manufacturer service manuals, they cannot access cloud diagnostic systems, acquire security certificates, complete component pairing, or write data to vehicle controllers without valid cryptographic keys.
In June 2026, the Ministry of Commerce released the Circular of the Ministry of Commerce and Eight Other Departments on Several Measures to Cultivate and Expand Consumption in the Automobile Aftermarket. Compared with the 2016 Measures, this circular adopts a noticeably conservative wording. The original mandatory requirement that “automobile manufacturers shall disclose repair information to repair operators and consumers without discrimination, prejudice or delay at reasonable prices” has been revised to guiding provisions that “guide NEV and power battery manufacturers to open repair technology authorizations, prioritize repair over replacement, and upgrade the socialized service capacity of NEV maintenance.”
Notably, the 2026 nine-department document adopts a guiding, non-mandatory approach to opening NEV repair technology access. That said, this adjustment should not be simply regarded as a replacement or retrogression of the 2016 Measures, as the two documents differ significantly in legal nature and policy positioning. A more critical question remains: despite existing mandatory information disclosure rules, why do relevant regulatory practices still rely mainly on incentive-based guidance for software diagnostics, cloud authentication and component pairing?
The underlying reasons are quite straightforward. The overall NEV industry is operating at a loss, with automakers’ vehicle sales profit margins severely squeezed and dealers facing substantial losses. Regulators are actively working to curb cutthroat industry competition and restore corporate profitability, as after-sales services serve as a core profit source for vehicle manufacturers.
In terms of antitrust enforcement concerning the opening of NEV repair rights, regulatory implementation falls mainly on local authorities. Many local governments maintain close interest ties with regional leading NEV manufacturers in terms of tax revenue, local employment and industrial investment. Against the current economic backdrop, local antitrust agencies have little incentive to proactively investigate dominant local automakers for locking diagnostic systems and monopolizing the automotive aftermarket.
Lastly, China’s current guidance-based policy for opening NEV repair rights may boost automakers’ short-term profits but is detrimental to long-term market competition and consumer interests. The core problem is that this softened policy prevents the formation of genuine competition in the automotive repair market. Consumers tend to choose manufacturer-authorized service centers not because of superior service quality, but because vehicle software locks leave them with no alternative options. From this perspective, to realize the long-term and healthy development of the NEV industry, the right-to-repair implementation standard established by the John Deere case — requiring manufacturers to provide vehicle owners and independent repair shops with resources equivalent to those offered to authorized dealers on fair and reasonable terms — should guide the future development of China’s NEV industry.
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