HP avoids monetary damages over bricked printers in class-action settlement
A United States District Court for the Northern District of California judge has signed off on a settlement agreement between HP and its customers who sued the company for issuing firmware updates that prevented their printers from working with non-HP ink and toner.
In December 2020, Mobile Emergency Housing Corp. and a company called Performance Automotive & Tire Center filed a class-action complaint against HP [PDF], alleging that the company “wrongfully compels users of its printers to buy and use only HP ink and toner supplies by transmitting firmware updates without authorization to HP printers over the Internet that lock out its competitors’ ink and toner supply cartridges.” The complaint centered on a firmware update issued in November 2020; it sought a court ruling that HP’s actions broke the law, an injunction against the firmware updates, and monetary and punitive damages.
“HP’s firmware ‘updates’ 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 2020 complaint reads.
