Update:
- In a joint notice filed July 12 in a California federal court, HP and a certified class of consumers reached a settlement in principle and are working to finalize the agreement.
- Consumers sued the printer company in 2020, alleging it pushed a software update to its printers to make them incompatible with other brands’ ink cartridges.
- They allege HP transmitted firmware updates without authorization to HP printers through the internet, with the first update pushed around Nov. 2020. These firmware updates reportedly act as malware, “adding, deleting or altering code, diminishing the capabilities of HP printers and rendering the competitors’ supply cartridges incompatible with HP printers,” the plaintiffs claim.
HP ink cartridge class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: HP Inc. is being sued by customers.
- Why: The customers allege HP pushed a firmware update that made its printers incompatible with other brands’ ink cartridges.
- Where: Nationwide
(Oct. 16, 2021)
A class action lawsuit alleging HP pushed a software update to its printers to make them incompatible with other brands’ ink cartridges can mostly go ahead, a judge has ruled.
A California federal judge ruled Oct. 15 that most of the class action allegations filed by printer owners against HP, Inc. could go ahead, throwing out only three of the claims.
The claims against HP were first filed in Dec. 2020. The plaintiffs allege that HP transmitted firmware updates without authorization to HP printers through the Internet, with the first update pushed around Nov. 2020.
These firmware updates allegedly act as malware, “adding, deleting or altering code, diminishing the capabilities of HP printers, and rendering the competitors’ supply cartridges incompatible with HP printers,” the plaintiffs said.
HP forced customers to purchase HP ink cartridges, class action alleges
The class action lawsuit said the company told them that HP printers have a “supply problem,” when HP had in fact intentionally caused the issue by sending the “malware” to render third-party ink cartridges incompatible with HP products.
“Plaintiffs allege that as a result of this malware, HP printer owners are either forced to buy HP cartridges or they cannot use their printers until third parties can develop workarounds in their products,” the lawsuit states.
They also allege HP used this firmware update process to conceal the fact it is actually collecting data on whether consumers are using HP or its competitors’ cartridges without their consent.
The lawsuit is looking to represent anyone nationwide who had a HP Color LaserJet Pro M254, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M280, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281, or any other model affected by HP malware transmissions.
The plaintiffs are Mobile Emergency Housing Corp., Performance Automotive & Tire Center and David Justin Lynch’s.
The plaintiffs are suing under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA), California False Advertising Law, California Unfair Competition Law and California Consumers Legal Remedies Act.
The order filed Oct. 15 allowed most of the claims to go ahead, apart from allegations regarding one section of CFAA, trespass to chattels and one claim based on one part of CDAFA.
The news comes as HP faces another class action lawsuit, with a consumer alleging that he and others with an HP “Instant Ink” subscription are experiencing faulty, error-prone cartridges.
Do you own an HP printer that suddenly wouldn’t work with other brands’ ink cartridges? Let us know your experience in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by Mark L. Javitch of Javitch Law Office and Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr. of Zimmerman Law Offices PC.
The HP Software Update Ink Cartridge Class Action Lawsuit is Mobile Emergency Housing Corp. et al. v. HP Inc., Case No. 5:20-cv-09157, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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1,748 thoughts onHP agrees to settlement in overpriced, incompatible ink cartridge class action
Well for some 20 plus years have owned Hp Printers. Over the last few years gave up getting generic ink for my printer as they bloody well were a waste of money. As I had run a computer repair business some years ago I just knew that they made sure it was proprietary, and they made sure they made tons of money on genuine Hp ink. Well, a couple of months ago guess what I bought a CANON and the ink is not uber expensive. Knew that there had to be a “skeleton” in the closet somewhere!
Constantly had to replace cartridges because they were crap!
Several purchases of HP printer cartridges and substitute one to no avail are working as promised.
Stopped buying all HP products because of ink issues
Wish I had known sooner……JUST three days ago took my piece-o-crap to the recycle bin at Bogus Buy, for this exact reason, printer WOULD NOT work & specified can’t use generic………I bought an Epson/ink bottle model.
Stopped buying HP p
HP ink is very over priced.
Have been facing several problems with HP printers over the years. They even tried to prevent me from using other companies paper but only HP paper – I know they changed the firmware – when I made roaring noise they silently took out that version!
Terrible printer’s cartridge are so expensive and don’t last no time I quit using mine
I’m am so fed up with hp printers because of the ink issues
Yes, we have had nothing but problems with HP for a while now. Nothing worked. After one update, in the last year, we couldn’t even use the printer. It wouldn’t even connect to any of the 3 computers that had been using it for years. The ink cartridges were horrendous! Costly and then some of them never worked! GRRRRR!