HP Fails To Dodge Lawsuit Over Blocking Users From Using Their Printer Scanner If Ink Cartridges Aren’t Installed
from the down-with-drm dept
When it comes to obnoxious DRM and bizarre, greedy restrictions, nobody does it better than printer manufacturers. The industry has long waged a not-so-subtle war on its own customers, routinely rolling out firmware updates or DRM preventing them from using more affordable, competitor printer cartridges.
A few years ago, printer manufacturers took this tactic one step further, and began preventing users from being able to use a multifunction printer’s scanner if they didn’t have company sanctioned ink installed. Canon was hit with a $5 million lawsuit in 2021 for the practice, but was able to quietly settle it privately without facing much accountability, or having to change much of its behavior.
In 2022 HP was also hit with a lawsuit (pdf) for preventing scanners from working without sanctioned ink cartridges installed, and not being transparent about this with customers. HP has spent a few years trying to wiggle out of the suit, but hasn’t had much luck. Last week, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled that the case could proceed.
HP lawyers had tried several tactics to have the case dismissed, including claiming that the court couldn’t trust the word of one of its own support reps when they stated at the company’s own website HP printers were specifically designed to include this error. They also tried to play some semantic patty cake, insisting that customers couldn’t prove they were being “actively” misleading:
HP in seeking a dismissal said the customers failed to allege such a duty or that it “actively” concealed any defect.
Classy.
Amusingly, other companies like Epson have tried to use HP and Canon’s troubles to their advantage. The Verge notes that Epson has an entire page in their FAQ dedicated to how they haven’t pulled this sort of trick since 2008 (though the company engages in other dodgy shit, like rolling out purported “security updates” that covertly prevent users from being able to use cheaper third-party cartridges).
I think HP and Canon are very fortunate that U.S. consumer protection regulators generally don’t have (courtesy of decades of lobbying) the time, staff, or resources to police the massive amount of this type of fraud that occurs in this country on a daily basis. Especially when it comes to the kind of ham-fisted restrictions on what consumers can do with technology they purportedly own.
Filed Under: consumers, drm, hardware, ink cartridge, printer, restrictions
Companies: hp
Comments on “HP Fails To Dodge Lawsuit Over Blocking Users From Using Their Printer Scanner If Ink Cartridges Aren’t Installed”
They are not alone
Recycled a Brother printer/scanner because of this, too, and bought a scanner not poisoned with printing technology. It is a pity Techdirt does not have a profanity filter or I would be able to adequately express my opinion about such behavior without offending human sensitivities. Where is the fun in self-restraint?
Re:
Sir this is Techdirt and not the SomethingAwful Forums
Or 4chan, but the wordfilters on 4chan are a different, hilarious beast
Re: And to use it I do hanker
Well, but where is the fun in being too direct?
“But there’s a term I’m rather fond of,
And to use it I do hanker.”
Coming form a country of censorship – yeah, it was bad, but the subtle and intricate humour flourished.
Re:
The fun in self restraint is knowing that people look for that lack of restraint as a way to undermine your argument… So keeping the restraint makes them upset that they need to actually defend their own points instead of attacking the presentation.
Besides… the willful presence of self-restraint gives more weight to the moments where the restraint has been lifted.
Hit them in the pocketbook
My solution is to simply not buy a printer from them anymore. Very few reasons to need to print anything any more.
Re: Printer has $150 of equipment, costs $50; ink has $5 of equipment, costs $25
Nah, printers are a loss-leader for a lot of them.
Stop buying their ink instead.
Re: Re:
But without the printer I really don’t need the ink. Job done.
Re:
Speaking from a community of people that still do bookbinding by hand as a hobby, even we steer clear of hp printers. And we have people determined enough to make fanfiction into 1000 page physical books. For context the average novel is between 200 and 400 pages, depending on genre.
Businesses are evolving from how do we make something people want to buy to how do we make our customers keep on paying us for what they bought.
Re:
Well, the ink thing seems perfect for that, but the printers still are shitty enough to only last a few years.
Got myself a vintage 2003 B&W Laserjet from HP. Just B&W, and a few parts needed servicing/replacing (pickup rollers, solenoid dampers), but you can service it (service manuals and parts readily available), toner is affordable, it uses the full page area and does double-sided printing.
Ink needed for other purpose?
Wonder if HP requires the ink for their Forensic Marking?
HP’s printer division proves that enshittification doesn’t just apply to online platforms.
At a time in the past, HP produced some of the best electronic test equipment out there. Their calculators were quite nice also.
A shame what happened.
Re: Agilent
That company still exists. It’s called “Agilent” now.
Re: Re:
Except that the instrument business went in another transaction to Keysight. Agilent is a medical lab equipment company now.
looks at printer industry… looks at Ford hiring someone from Apple to manage their software enabled features in cars
This is fine.