Brother Printers Stop Working Before Toner Runs Out, Class Action Says

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A class action lawsuit claims Brother laser printers are programmed to stop printing before toner cartridges run out, and when the cartridges still have a significant amount of toner left in them.

Plaintiff Zeev Friedman says that he owns a Brother HL-5370DW laser printer, and that around 2014, he purchased two TN620 laser toner cartridges for his printer, per the recommendation of Brother.

He alleges that he paid $127.48 for the toner and that in October 2017, the printer and cartridges stopped printing, despite the fact that the cartridge still had toner in it. He says that he replaced the toner cartridge for $109.99 in October 2017.

According to Friedman, Brother laser printers are designed to stop printing when the toner cartridge reaches a certain level of toner, but there is still a significant amount of toner in the cartridge.

He says that the company does this so that consumers are forced to purchase more toner cartridges than they would have had to if they could use all of the toner in the cartridge.

The Brother laser printers class action lawsuit alleges that a significant portion of Brother’s profits come not from the sale of the printers themselves, but from toner cartridges, and they intentionally and systematically prevent consumers from using all of the toner in a cartridge to maximize the company’s profits.

Friedman claims that the Brother printers stop printing when hundreds or even thousands more pages could be printed with the toner in the toner cartridge.

He says that he and other consumers who purchased Brother laser printers were financially injured by Brother, because they were unable to use the full contents of the toner cartridge they purchased, and had to spend more money purchasing additional cartridges than they would if they could use all of the toner in the cartridge.

The Brother laser printer class action lawsuit states that the company committed trespass to chattels by preventing consumers from using all of the toner in the cartridge they purchased, meaning the company intentionally interfered with the customers’ lawful possession of the toner cartridge.

Friedman claims that this is the case because the customer purchased the cartridge itself, not a license to use the cartridge to print a certain number of pages. He says by programming the printers to stop printing at a certain time, the company is exercising “wrongful control over [consumers’] toner cartridge.”

Allegedly, the company does not permit a customer to override the printer programming that prevents the entire cartridge from being used, so that the printer will print until the toner visibly runs out.

The Brother printer toner class action lawsuit cites a statement by a district judge in another case, who noted that in the cases of most laser printers, “consumers will print until they can tell by degraded print quality that [toner] is running out. This is because they expect full use of their [toner cartridge].”

Friedman seeks compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of himself and other Ohio residents — business entities or individuals — who purchased a Brother laser printers and Brother toner cartridges.

Zeev Freidman is represented by Patrick J. Perotti, Nicole T. Fiorelli, and Frank A. Bartela of Dworken & Bernstein Co. LPA.

The Brother Laser Printer Toner Cartridge Class Action Lawsuit is Zeev Freidman Esq. D/B/A The Friedman Law Firm v. Brother International Corporation, Case No. unknown, in the Court of Common Pleas Cuyahoga County, Ohio.