BILL NUMBER: S5771
SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to enacting the
"farm equipment fair repair act"
 
PURPOSE:
This bill will require original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of farm
equipment to make diagnostic and repair information for such equipment
sold or used in this state available to consumers and independent repair
providers. It also makes the equipment or service parts, including soft-
ware updates, available for purchase by the owner of such equipment,
authorized agents, or independent repair providers at fair and reason-
able terms.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Titled "Farm Equipment Fair Repair Act".
Section 2. Adds a new article 33-C of the General Business Law.
*Requires original equipment manufacturers and authorized repair provid-
ers of farm equipment to make diagnostic and repair information, parts,
and tools available to consumer owners and independent repair providers.
Section 3. Effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill will protect farmers and agricultural communities with long
traditions of repairing and maintaining their own equipment from the
monopolistic repair practices of manufacturers. Farmers need to be able
to repair their own equipment, if they choose, and that option must be
restored to them. Repair is normal, legal, and necessary to keep our
homes and businesses running. Nowhere is this truer than in the agricul-
tural sector, where farmers have long assisted one another with repairs
or made their own as necessary.
Without fair and reasonable access to repair, farmers are limited to
expensive and time-consuming repairs at a handful of facilities. With-
out the ability to do on-site repairs themselves or options beyond cost-
prohibitive proprietary services, equipment breakdown can result in
lengthy and devastating delays during harvest or other highly time-sen-
sitive moments in the growing season. Repairable equipment may be
discarded and replaced with new equipment, as manufacturers often
intend. This is costly to farmers and consumers alike, reducing the
value of used equipment and increasing the cost of doing business. Limi-
tations on repair also create perverse incentives for manufacturers to
build less durable products.
By providing fair and reasonable access to repair of farm equipment, the
State will recognize the traditional self-reliance and ingenuity of its
farming communities. This bill restores the right to repair farm equip-
ment, ends the monopolistic repair practices of manufacturers, and opens
the repair market to broader competition and all its benefits.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the state.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.