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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1,751 thoughts onHP agrees to settlement in overpriced, incompatible ink cartridge class action
I have HP also, please add me
I have and have had HP printers, many issues with the ink cartridges. I want to be added to this class action. Haven’t been able to use my printers, returned one and bought another, for over a year.
I have the same problem. I bought another set of ink cartridges thinking the cartridges were damaged.
Please add me to the hp settlement thing. I haven’t been able to use my printer for about a year and hp kept taking money out of my account.
Please add me. I had to purchase Hp ink. I bought ink from a third party for hp printer and was told that it had to be genuine hp ink cartridges.
Add me. 3 hp printers
SO..I have 2 printers sitting because of this issue.
I have an HP ink subscription that I can’t get rid of because comparable cartridges no longer work. I also pay a subscription for the number of pages printed per month. I suddenly can’t print the volume of pages through the ink subscription that I was able to print when I purchased store cartridges . Please add me to any lawsuit regarding their ink and paper printing subscriptions.
I have a hp printer Office Jet Pro 8020 pay $7 monthly had it 4 yrs
After firmware update my hp officejet 8600 wouldn’t recognize ink cartridges made for the usa region. It would only work with ink cartridges made for overseas. I didn’t notice until I ordered hp ink cartridges on amazon. The ink cartridges have region letters or code for what part of the world they are for. The ones I got from amazon were for Africa. Ever since I used those cartridges my printer no longer would recognize cartridges I could get local, so I ended up getting a new printer, when the old one was only 3 years old and worked fine up until the firmware update.
add me please