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On Tuesday, a California federal judge again granted final approval to a class action settlement over allegations Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) misled consumers about its inkjet printer ink so that they would prematurely replace their ink cartridges, after adjusting the attorneys’ fees calculation based on an appeals court ruling.
The HP settlement resolves three separate class action lawsuits that lodged similar allegations against the company. In 2007, these actions were consolidated into multidistrict litigation (MDL) titled In re: HP Inkjet Printer Litigation. HP denies that it misled consumers but agreed to settle the printer ink class action lawsuit to avoid the expense and uncertainty of ongoing litigation.
Under the terms of the printer ink class action settlement, HP agreed to issue coupons worth up to $6, discontinue some of its pop-up messages about printer ink levels, and provide additional information about the printer ink cartridges on its website, user manuals and packaging.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel initially approved the HP class action settlement in March 2011. Although notice of the deal reached approximately 13 million Class Members, only 122,000 claims for coupons were filed.
An objector subsequently filed an appeal of the HP class action settlement, arguing that the $1.5 million attorney fee award was excessive in comparison to the benefits actually received by Class Members. When Judge Fogel approved the attorney fees, he concluded that the “ultimate value” to Class Members was about $1.5 million. Further, the fees were much lower than HP had initially agreed to pay.
On appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that attorney’s fees must be calculated based on the redemption value of the coupons. Following the appellate court decision, Judge Fogel revised his calculation and concluded that $1.35 million plus nearly $597,000 in fees was appropriate for the class action settlement.
“The amount of attorney’s fees reflects a ten percent reduction of the amount previously awarded for both coupon and equitable relief, and it represents a lodestar award for Class Counsel’s work on the non-coupon portion of the litigation, reduced so that the attorneys’ fees award does not exceed the value of the settlement to the class,” Judge Fogel wrote in his order granting final approval to the HP class action settlement.
Further objections to the HP class action settlement were also dismissed in Tuesday’s order.
The deadline to file a claim for the HP class action settlement has passed. It is not yet certain when the coupons will be issued. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated. You can also check the HP inkjet printer settlement website for more information.
The HP Inkjet Printer Class Action Lawsuit is In re: HP Inkjet Printer Litigation, Case No. 5:05-cv-03580, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
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36 thoughts onHP Inkjet Printer Class Action Settlement Approved
please add me. I have a HP printer and I keep getting the ink notices all of the time. I want to know why wasn’t I informed about this
HP sucks
Cares nothing about customer satisfaction.HP printer ink is a money making scam. The printer’s software disables printer with low ink message which happens prematurely. This is designed to force customers to purchase expensive cartridges which are not filled to capacity in the first place.
Will not buy HP products again!
Why is it that the lawyers get paid and the consumer, of which I am one, cannot get a lousy $6.00 coupon that we can’t even buy an new cartridge. How completely corporate greedy can HP get? I have had to buy cartridges for two different printers over the years and the coupon barely scratches the surface. How long are they going to hold us up on receiving this paltry settlement? Are the attorneys working on a resolution or are they finished with their part in this situation?
My HP printer just now displays a message that I need to change the black ink. I have used 2 brand new HP ink cartridges and still get the error message. My printer is now a boat anchor and it is out of warranty and HP will not stand behind it. I have been out of work for almost 9 years and it is hard to pay for ink. Now I cannot use the printer and cannot afford to buy another one. I need a printer to use for job applications and resumes, etc.
The deadline for joining a class action suit is ridiculous given that HP is apparently allowed to sell these “all-in-one” pieces of crap with ransomware apparently built in by the mfgr. I don’t have much money. This is the first equipment I’ve bought since 1994. I’m on a fixed income, disabled from a stroke. Bought the damned Envy 4520 so I can copy things at home for government reports in order to keep my benefits. It’s very difficult to go someplace where they have copier services. So I have been PISSED OFF since the damned thing sudden;y stopped working, giving me an error message about the ink. When I set it up I declined the option to allow it to order it’s own ink. Somehow that was changed and now HP is holding my machine hostage from me, it’s f’g owner, until I pay them. I don’t react well to being screwed by corporations. I’m telling everybody and anybody about this. Slamming the corp. everywhere. They lost a customer. And hopefully many more.
I am trying to scan with a hp3630 and I can’t even do that, because apparently the printer is out of ink. I’m not even sure it is actually out of ink, but more likely HP software decided I’m out of ink. I used very little color ink and yet it reads the cartridge as empty. I would like to join a class action against HP. This is captive capitalism, this is a form of piracy.
Unfortunately, the settlement took place in 2014 and the claim deadline has passed.
I’m just getting these ink messages now on an office jet 4620 series printer, 564 ink. Called HP and found out to my surprise that I am paying full price for refilled ink. Bought this ink at Walmart. This is not the first time this has happened. Contacting a lawyer as we speak.
I purchased a 4632 All-In-One printer/scanner/fax for personal use at a retail cost of just over $100, and it’s been nothing but trouble.
The print and scan ops are good when you can get it to work but they malfunction most of the time due to software issues, the feeder jams frequently regardless of the size of the job (1+ pages…not kidding, even with the preferred HP paper), it eats ink at less than half the stated rate of pages per cartridge, and it absolutely will NOT work with any generic inks. Scanning is sharp, but slow, as is the printing, the scanner and paper feeds jam a lot, and this unit is very noisy. Wireless works about 50% of the time.
There is no logical pattern for the malfunctions. It works one minute and the next it doesn’t. It does NOT respond to customary troubleshooting, the manual suggestions, the free online forum fixes, and the \updates\ create more problems than they solve.
It always seems to malfunction when you need something done on time, and you end up having to call paid tech support (costing $30+ each plus an average of an hour of your time) because none of the online fixes work, or if they do, as soon as you log off, there are more issues requiring more time and financial outlay.
In 6 months, the tech support calls amounted to 3x the original printer cost. It cost me over $80 in ink cartridges to print less than 200 pages (even after setting preferences only for B&W) and it will not work with generic inks so you can try to economize, so you’re forced to pay, pay, pay for inefficient ink supplies, and sweat even the simplest job hoping this machine will work, and 50% of the time it does not.
In hindsight, this expensive, poorly engineered piece of… plastic is a premeditated way for HP to generate after-sale profits for ink and tech support (and clog up the landfills) because this unit will frustrate you so much and you’ll get so tired of paying multiple times for simple functions, you’ll want to smash it, trash it, and buy another printer NOT made by HP.
All tolled, based on the input of funds and wasted time, it’s far less expensive and less stressful to drive/walk/bus it to Kinko’s, or spend the $3-400 for a decent laser printer/scanner that will actually do the jobs you purchased it to do faster than HPs without the additional expenses and frustrations HP sells you.
Epson lost a class action suit over rigging their ink cartridges for profit as well with little publicity. HP has also been sued in class action by the shareholders. HP deserves another one for intentional software/firmware manipulation and poor product design.
This is 2015 not 1995. We live in a diverse, fast-paced technological marketplace. I won’t be recommending or buying any more HP products either.