Sponsors (3)
The bill broadens owners' and independent repairers' legal access to tools, data, and documentation—boosting competition, lowering repair costs, and protecting consumer choice—while raising trade‑secret, safety, enforcement, and cost‑pass‑through risks that could increase prices, create litigation/implementation burdens, or leave some security and proprietary barriers unresolved.
Farm equipment owners and independent repair providers gain access to OEM documentation, diagnostic tools, parts, software, and equipment-generated data on fair terms, lowering repair costs, reducing downtime, and promoting competition and aftermarket innovation.
Owners retain clear repair rights — including the ability to use replacement parts and legally bypass technical protection measures (TPMs) or use circumvention tools for repair, interoperability, security research, and non‑infringing modifications — reducing vendor lock‑in and preserving consumer choice.
Consumers and owners benefit from stronger enforcement because violations become unfair or deceptive acts under the FTC Act, enabling the FTC to use injunctions, orders and civil penalties to deter and stop unlawful OEM practices.
Buyers of equipment (farmers and small businesses) may face higher purchase prices, service fees, or reduced after‑sales support if OEMs pass compliance and distribution costs onto customers or cut proprietary services to offset lost exclusive revenue.
Allowing circumvention and broader distribution of repair tools could be misused, increasing the risk of unauthorized control, tampering, or safety incidents that endanger operators, bystanders, or critical equipment functions in rural and agricultural settings.
Requirements to provide tools, firmware, and documentation raise trade‑secret and proprietary‑software concerns: OEMs may redact or litigate disclosures, and retained protections could still limit the usefulness of materials for independent repair.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Introduced October 28, 2025 by Marie Gluesenkamp Perez · Last progress October 28, 2025
Requires makers of farm equipment to give equipment owners and independent repair providers access to parts, tools, software, firmware, documentation, and equipment-generated data on fair and reasonable terms so they can diagnose, maintain, reprogram, or repair equipment. It also creates an express legal carve-out to anti-circumvention law for repair and security research, directs the Federal Trade Commission to write rules and enforce violations as unfair or deceptive practices, and adds graduated daily civil penalties for noncompliance while preserving trade-secret, safety, emissions, and copyright protections.