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Shares of Deere & Company, AGCO Corp. and CNH Industrial fell Wednesday, October 7, after the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Agriculture opened a joint public inquiry into business practices across agricultural-equipment manufacturing and distribution. Regulators are seeking information on possible barriers farmers face when buying machinery and obtaining the services needed to keep it operating.
The agencies are asking farmers, independent repair providers, and current and former employees of equipment makers and dealerships to describe relevant business policies, contracts, restrictions, penalties or retaliation. The inquiry is a request for information—not an announced lawsuit or finding that any company violated the law. Comments are due by December 7, 2026.
Contemporaneous market reports said the announcement weighed on the three manufacturers’ shares. Investing.com reported declines of 5.0% for Deere, 5.7% for CNH and 5.9% for AGCO; Bloomberg Law reported larger intraday losses at one point, including drops of as much as 5.7% for Deere, 8.4% for AGCO and 7.5% for CNH. Those figures reflect different reported moments during trading, not necessarily closing prices.
Regulators seek accounts of market practices
The FTC and USDA said the inquiry responds to a growing number of complaints received by USDA about barriers to acquiring agricultural equipment and services. Their request invites firsthand accounts and documentation concerning business models, policies, agreements and contract terms, as well as restrictions, financial penalties or retaliation.
The agencies also want information about how any such practices may affect prices, market entry, innovation, farmers’ welfare and the economic resilience of rural communities. They said the responses will inform enforcement and regulatory priorities and potential future action. The announcement does not specify a particular company as the target of the inquiry.
The public comment period gives regulators a way to gather evidence across the manufacturing and distribution chain. It does not itself establish that the practices described by commenters are widespread, unlawful or attributable to any of the three publicly traded companies.
Deere faces an existing repair-rights backdrop
The new inquiry follows a separate FTC enforcement action concerning Deere. In July 2026, the FTC and five states secured a settlement resolving their antitrust lawsuit, which had alleged that Deere restricted farmers’ and independent repair providers’ access to tools needed to repair the company’s equipment.
Under the settlement, Deere must provide farmers and independent repair providers with repair resources equivalent to those available to its authorized dealers for 10 years, subject to FTC and state supervision. The required resources include applicable software capabilities. That resolution is distinct from the broader October inquiry, which seeks public information about agricultural-equipment manufacturing and distribution markets.
The FTC’s October announcement cited both the Deere settlement and a separate settlement involving Corteva as part of its ongoing work on competition in agriculture. It described the new request as an information-gathering step intended to help shape future enforcement and regulatory priorities, rather than announcing new charges against Deere, AGCO or CNH.
What the reported stock comparisons show—and do not
A separate Investing.com analysis published October 7 compared the three companies using market and valuation snapshots. It reported prices around 1:15–1:16 p.m. EDT of $661.21 for Deere, $109.59 for AGCO and $12.56 for CNH, alongside trailing price-to-earnings ratios of 36.7, 14.4 and 50.0, respectively. These are time-specific figures from that analysis, not closing prices or a regulator’s assessment of the companies.
The same analysis reported that revenue at all three companies had declined from levels reached around 2023: Deere from $61.22 billion to $45.63 billion, AGCO from $14.41 billion to $10.08 billion and CNH from $24.69 billion to $18.09 billion. It attributed the divergent valuation readings partly to earnings contracting faster than share prices. The article was identified as AI-assisted and editor-reviewed, and its fair-value estimates and investment characterizations are model outputs, not independently verified forecasts.
For investors, the confirmed immediate development is regulatory scrutiny of market practices across the sector, alongside a share-price reaction reported during Wednesday trading. The inquiry’s scope and outcome remain open: regulators have not announced findings, proposed remedies or a timetable for action beyond the December 7 deadline for public comments.
Public comments due in December
Comments may be submitted through Regulations.gov and must arrive by 11:59 p.m. on December 7, according to the FTC. The agencies have invited submissions from people with direct experience in the market, including farmers, repair providers and current or former industry and dealership employees.
After the comment period, the information will be used to guide the agencies’ enforcement and regulatory priorities. The FTC and USDA have not said when they will publish a review of submissions or whether the inquiry will lead to any specific legal or regulatory action.
