HP Can’t Escape Ink Cartridge Monopoly Class Action Lawsuit

Last week, a California federal judge has trimmed some claims from a HP ink cartridge monopoly class action lawsuit.

In October 2016, consumers Richard San Miguel and DeLores Lawty filed a class action lawsuit claiming that Hewlett Packard Co. unlawfully updated printers with firmware that rendered them incompatible with non-HP brand printer ink.

 U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila rejected HP’s request to dismiss the case entirely, trimming some of the consumers’ claims against the company, and stating that the company must defend themselves against a revised version of the allegations.

According to San Miguel and Lawty, they initially purchased HP printers in 2015. Until 2016, they were able to use ink cartridges manufactured by companies other than HP. Then, in 2016, they state that their printers displayed an “error” message when the consumers tried to use ink cartridges produced by companies other than HP.

Allegedly, the error message read that the ink cartridges were defective, not installed at all, or were empty. The consumers claim that they received this message when none of the problems stated in the error message were true. Allegedly, the error message was accompanied by a link directing consumers to HP’s website, selling HP ink cartridges.

The plaintiffs claim that the company did this to increase their profits, as HP allegedly makes significantly more money from the sale of ink cartridges than they do from the sale of printers themselves.

Allegedly, thousands of consumers had similar experiences, stating that HP did not tell consumers it was installing new firmware onto existing printers, rendering printers that had once worked with ink cartridges of many brands only compatible with HP cartridges.

In their original HP ink cartridge class action lawsuit, San Miguel and Lawty claimed that HP installed new firmware onto existing printers “without authorization.” However, Judge Davila determined that the consumers had admitted that HP had “authorized access” as the makers of the printers, and failed to sufficiently show that the company had “exceeded authorized access.” Thus, Judge Davila ruled to throw out this claim from the HP printer class action lawsuit.

San Miguel and Lawty seek damages from the HP ink cartridge class action lawsuit, claiming that they and thousands of other consumers were financially injured from being unable to use the ink cartridges of their choice and being forced to purchase HP ink cartridges. They propose injunctive relief that would require the company to cease blocking consumers from using third party ink cartridges.

The plaintiffs allege that HP’s action violates Section 502 of the California Computer Crime Law. Some claims of violation were cut from the case, but three survived. Judge Davila claims that the consumers did propose that the court should interpret a part of the law to apply to firmware as opposed to just to hacking, as the law is usually applied. Though HP argues for a narrower interpretation of the law, Judge Davila saw enough merit in the consumers’ allegations to keep consumer protection claims.

San Miguel and Lawty are represented by Elizabeth Kramer of Girard Gibbs LLP.

The HP Ink Cartridge Monopoly Class Action Lawsuit is In re: HP Printer Firmware Update Litigation, Case No. 5:16-cv-05820-EJD, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

UPDATE: On Sept. 18, 2018, customers reached a$1.5 million deal with HPending a class action lawsuit over third party ink cartridges and an allegedly fake error message that would stop consumers from being able to use them.UPDATE 2: February 2019, the HP OfficeJet printer class action settlement is now open.Click here to file a claim. UPDATE 3: On Nov. 26, 2019, our readers started receiving settlement checks from the HP printer firmware resolutionworth as much as $164.20.Congratulations to everyone who filed a claim and got PAID!