Samuel Levine and Hannah Garden-Monheit Letter to Minnesota House of Representatives Regarding Right to Repair

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, DC 20580
Samuel Levine
Director
Bureau of Consumer Protection
Hannah Garden-Monheit
Director
Office of Policy Planning
March 22, 2024
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Representative Kristi Pursell
Minnesota House of Representatives
523 State Office Building
St. Paul, MN 55155
Re: 	Minnesota HF 4800
Dear Representative Pursell:
We write this letter as the heads of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and its Office of
Policy Planning.1 We understand that the Minnesota legislature is considering a bill to further the
right to repair by agricultural equipment owners and independent repair providers.
As Minnesota’s recent right-to-repair legislation recognizes, and as the Commission stated in its
bipartisan right to repair policy statement,2 restricting consumers and businesses from choosing
how they repair products can substantially increase the total cost of repairs, generate waste, and
unnecessarily increase repair downtime. In contrast, eliminating repair restrictions can lead to
1 The FTC’s Office of Policy Planning provides advocacy and submits filings supporting competition and consumer
protection principles to state legislatures, regulatory boards, and officials.
2Policy Statement of the Federal Trade Commission on repair Restrictions Imposed by Manufacturers and Sellers,
available at
https://www ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_statements/1592330/p194400repairrestrictionspolicystatement.p
df.

lower costs, reduce waste by extending the useful lifespan of products, enable more timely
repairs, and provide economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and local businesses.
The FTC has heard in particular about the hardships that repair restrictions inflict on the farmers
that feed our nation.3 Because weather often demands that farmers sow, tend, and harvest their
crops in narrow windows, downtime for vital agricultural equipment due to repair restrictions
can lead to reduced yields and even lost crops. Such losses can be catastrophic, particularly for
small, family-owned farms.4
Some manufacturers attempt to justify repair restrictions by claiming that they are necessary to
protect against tractor alterations that tamper with emission controls and to ensure compliance
with the Clean Air Act.5 However, contrary to these claims, a letter sent last year from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the National Farmers Union explained, “[t]he Clean
Air Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s implementing regulations clearly
support repair by parties other than manufacturers” and “the EPA and the Clean Air Act allow
owners to repair emission-related components of their products to proper functioning.”6 The
EPA made clear in that letter that the Clean Air Act and EPA regulation and policy seek to
prevent emissions tampering “not by limiting access to independent repair, but rather by
enforcing the prohibition against tampering against any party that does so.” The EPA further
noted that it supports “efforts by anyone to enact legislation clarifying that independent repair is
allowable, provided such efforts continue to clearly prohibit illegal tampering of emissions
control systems.”
In addition, to the extent opponents of right-to-repair legislation argue that repair restrictions are
necessary to protect the safety or cybersecurity of owners and independent repairers, the FTC has
previously found such arguments to be without support. In the Commission’s May 2021 Nixing
the Fix Report, issued unanimously by the bipartisan Commission to the United States
Congress,7 the Commission found that there is scant evidence to support manufacturers’
justifications for repair restrictions, including those related to safety and cybersecurity.8
3 E.g., Federal Trade Commission, Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions at 39 (May
2021), available at https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-
restrictions/nixing the fix report final 5521 630pm-508 002.pdf.
4 E.g., Bedayn, Jesse, Colorado Becomes the 1st to Pass “right to repair” for farmers, APNews.com (April 25,
2023), https://apnews.com/article/colorado-right-to-repair-farming-equipment-
1da00ea957fd1057bf522cb4725e62d4.
5 Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.; See e.g., Letter from Rob Larew, President, National Farmers Union to EPA
Administrator Michael S. Regan dated June 13, 2023, available at
https://files.constantcontact.com/63400020701/e2cf116e-c8dc-427b-a9bb-474b7f4206af.pdf?rdr=true; Federal
Trade Commission, Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions (May 2021) at n.205,
available at https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-
restrictions/nixing the fix report final 5521 630pm-508 002.pdf.
6 Letter from EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan to Rob Larew, President, National Farmers Union dated August
4, 2023, available at https://files.constantcontact.com/63400020701/bfa78700-0f65-4f17-bfc8-
1a9c05916b6f.pdf?rdr=true.
7 Federal Trade Commission, Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions (May 2021),
available at https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-
restrictions/nixing the fix report final 5521 630pm-508 002.pdf.
8 Id. at 6, 10, 24-38.
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We understand that opponents of right-to-repair legislation also may point to the recently signed
Memoranda of Understanding between the American Farm Bureau Federation and certain
manufacturers, as well as a 2018 Statement of Principles issued by the Association of Equipment
Manufacturers and the Equipment Dealers Association,9 to claim legislation is unnecessary. The
MOUs, however, are easily terminable and have no enforcement mechanism—beyond
“consultation”—upon which farmers and independent repair shops can depend. In contrast,
violations of the proposed bill would be deemed unlawful practices under MN law and subject to
enforcement by the MN Attorney General. Consumers would benefit significantly from the
proposed bill.
As noted in the Nixing the Fix Report, the FTC stands ready to work with legislators at the state
and federal levels to ensure that consumers have choices when they need to repair products that
they purchase and own.
Sincerely,
s/ Sam Levine 	s/ Hannah Garden-Monheit
Director 	Director
Bureau of Consumer Protection 	Office of Policy Planning
9 E.g., Memorandum of Understanding between American Farm Bureau Federation and Deere & Company,
available at https://www fb.org/files/AFBF John Deere MOU.pdf; Memorandum of Understanding between
American Farm Bureau Federation and AGCO Corporation, available at https://www fb.org/files/MOU-R2R-
AGCO-Final-Fully-Executed-5.17.23.pdf; Memorandum of Understanding between American Farm Bureau
Federation and Kubota Tractor Corporation, available at https://www fb.org/files/MOU-R2R-KUBOTA-Final-
Fully-Executed-5.17.23.pdf; Statement of Principles, available at
https://s3.amazonaws.com/media r2rsolutions.org/documents/r2r statement of principles.pdf.
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