Update:ย
- 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.ย
- Consumers sued the printer company in 2020, alleging it pushed a software update to its printers to make them incompatible with other brandsโ ink cartridges.ย
- 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, โadding, deleting or altering code, diminishing the capabilities of HP printers and rendering the competitorsโ supply cartridges incompatible with HP printers,โ 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 brandsโ 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 brandsโ 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.ย
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, โadding, deleting or altering code, diminishing the capabilities of HP printers, and rendering the competitorsโ supply cartridges incompatible with HP printers,โ 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 โsupply problem,โ when HP had in fact intentionally caused the issue by sending the โmalwareโ to render third-party ink cartridges incompatible with HP products.ย
โPlaintiffs 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,โ the lawsuit states.ย
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 competitorsโ cartridges without their consent.ย
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.ย
The plaintiffs are Mobile Emergency Housing Corp., Performance Automotive & Tire Center and David Justin Lynchโs.
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 โInstant Inkโ subscription are experiencing faulty, error-prone cartridges.ย
Do you own an HP printer that suddenly wouldnโt work with other brandsโ ink cartridges? Let us know your experience in the comments!ย
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.
Donโt Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
1,748 thoughts onHP agrees to settlement in overpriced, incompatible ink cartridge class action
Please add me to the list.My HP printer is disabled and I can no longer print. HP has blocked me from using my printer due to not purchasing ink from them.THEY HAVE BLOCKED MY PRINTER.
Same here! Hp blocked me after changing the cartridges and I canโt use the printer anymore :( !
My OfficeJet Pro 8715 will no longer accept any cartridges that donโt have an HP chip. I now receive a prompt that says โnon-hp chip detectedโ followed by the following statement: โthe indicated cartridges have been blocked by the printer firmware because they contains non-ho chip. This printer is intended to work only with new or reused cartridges that have a new oe reused hp chip.โ How is this not a violation of Magnuson-Moss?
Add me to list. I replaced cartridge to my hp 4500 envy. Now it will only take Hp cartridges. They over twice what I was paying.
Off brand cartridges are a third of the cost, but wonโt work! Sign me up!
I had this issue with my HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 and went through at least 4 of (each color) ink cartridges until I learned that it wasnโt the cartridge but that HP sent updates down top my printer that effectively stopped you from using any other ink cartridge unless it was their brandโฆVery upset the took low road and glad they got caught..Please include me
HP ENVY 4500 โ wonโt let me print after refilling their refillable cartridges. Test page prints, alignment page prints, can copy, but HP wonโt let me print or scan.
Add my name to you list. Maria.
Please add me to your list. My HP Officejet 8610 will no longer let me print black and white, saying one of the color cartridges is empty. I purchased the required color, tried to print, and now it says the other color cartridge is empty. I really only need black and white functionality, but it seems to be draining my color cartridges at an inexplicable rate.
I hope this lawsuit is successful, but I also hope HP faces criminal charges! I have two HP all-in-one printers. When the screen kept telling me something was wrong with the printer (more times than I can count), I kept trying over and over (unplugging it and plugging it back in, etc.) and was finally able to get it to go ahead and let me print. Eventually, it said something was wrong with the printhead and either I didnโt try long enough or they intentionally saw to it that that was the end of my using it, I purchased another printhead, and then the error messages kept on coming. I finally bought another one just like it. But the error messages continued to come! The clincher is all the misery I experienced and time I wasted, trying to get around the fake messages. The final time, it went through a whole menu of messages, each one saying something else was wrong. Iโm definitely celebrating if justice is done on this one! During the time this was going on, I spent months staying with my sister in intensive care before both she and her husband died; then their youngest son also died. I had enough sorrow in my life to deal with without having to waste what little time I had, trying to get my HP to print.
Please add me, Iโve dealt with the ghosts in the hp machines for twenty years. I replaced my ink with HP branded ink and am told the printhead is missing, not detected, or incorrectly installed yet my computer can update in real time with the printer showing me all four ink cartridges are full. How do they keep getting away with things like this? Iโll buy a different brandโs printer but the thing that bothers me the most is throwing away a perfectly working printer and the millions of printers that end up in landfills for no reason other than corporate greed.
I had been using third party cartridges for a while. I recently ran out of ink and loaded the same brand cartridge I had been using for quite some time (I donโt print a lot). The deadly non-HP circuitry message came up and rendered my cartridges useless. I have coughed up the extra ransom and purchased HP cartridges to turn my printer back into something more than a paperweight. HP Officejet 5258.
If it is not too late to be added to this class, count me in.
Sign me up! A couple of months ago HP performed an โupdateโ on my Office Jet Pro 8025 printer which was neither requested nor authorized by me. My ink cartridges are now blocked from being used and I basically have an unusable printer. What right does HP have to control a printer that sits in my home and forces me to purchase only their overpriced ink?