Majors Take New Hampshire Law to U.S. Supreme Court

Major manufacturers of tractors and other heavy equipment plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a New Hampshire law they say unfairly lumps their products in with cars and trucks, lawyers representing the manufacturers said last week.

In question is the state’s Automobile Dealer Bill of Rights, which was expanded in 2013 to include equipment dealers in addition to auto and truck dealers. The tractor, construction, yard and garden equipment manufacturers say the law unconstitutionally interferes with their dealer contracts.

The plaintiffs—Deere, CNH, AGCO, Kubota, and Husqvarna—also argue the law will terminate the manufacturers’ dealership agreements, creating “substantial uncertainty” in the marketplace.

"The equipment industry does not operate in the same way as the motor vehicle industry,” lawyers for the manufacturers wrote. “It sells different products for different uses to different individuals and entities, and it contracts differently with its distributors and dealers.”

Attorney Kevin Fitzgerald, who represents the manufacturers, said there is “probably a good degree of uncertainty that manufacturers, dealers and consumers are going to have to deal with because provisions of this new law are profoundly inconsistent with the actual agreements that have existed for years, in some cases, decades.”

The state of New Hampshire had argued that the law is a merger of regulations that dealt separately with automobile manufacturers and farm and tractor manufacturers.

The law bars manufacturers from terminating contracts with dealers without just cause, limits mandatory upgrades to facilities and requires proper reimbursement for warranty work done by dealers.

The New Hampshire Automobile Dealers Association and the Northeast Equipment Dealers Association support the law, saying the provisions will encourage competition by preventing manufacturers from forcing dealers to drop lines or spend lots of money on unnecessary upgrades on buildings. S