HP printers have obtained plenty of flak traditionally and lately for invasive firmware updates that find yourself stopping clients from utilizing ink with their printers. HP additionally encourages printer clients to enroll in HP+, a program that features a free ink-subscription trial and irremovable firmware that permits HP to brick the ink when it sees match.
Despite this, HP markets dozens of its printers with Dynamic Security and the non-compulsory HP+ function as being within the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry, suggesting that these printers are constructed with the atmosphere in thoughts and, extra particularly, don’t block third-party ink cartridges. Considering Dynamic Security and HP+ printers do precisely that, the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC) desires the General Electronics Council (GEC), which is in command of the EPEAT registry, to revoke not less than 101 HP printer fashions from the EPEAT registry, which HP has “made a mockery of.”
Before we get into the IITC grievance despatched May 22 to GEC Senior Manager Katherine Larocque, we should be aware the IITC’s apparent stakes on this. The nonprofit trade affiliation was based in 2000 and says it represents “toner and inkjet cartridge remanufacturers, part suppliers, and cartridge collectors in North America.” So its members stand to lose some huge cash from techniques like Dynamic Security. The IITC already filed a grievance to the GEC about HP in 2019 for firmware blocking non-HP ink, however there did not appear to be any noticeable outcomes.
The group is biased relating to this subject, however its grievance nonetheless mirrors many issues and considerations that buyers and class-action lawsuits have detailed relating to HP printers’ unique stance on ink. You can discover the total grievance right here.
“Killer firmware updates”
For a printer to make the EPEAT registry, it is purported to adjust to the EPEAT Imaging Equipment Category Criteria, which relies on the 1680.2-2012 IEEE Standard for Environmental Assessment of Imaging Equipment (PDF). The IITC is hung up on part 4.9.2.1, which requires that registered merchandise don’t “forestall the usage of nonmanufacturer cartridges and non-manufacturer containers” and that distributors present documentation exhibiting that the system is not “designed to stop the usage of a non-manufacturer cartridge or non-manufacturer container.”
Well, because the IITC and shoppers who discovered their inked bricked mid-print will inform you, that sounds an terrible lot like what HP does with its Dynamic Security printers.
Diving deeper, the IITC’s grievance claims that “within the final 8 weeks alone, HP has launched 4 killer firmware updates focusing on dozens of EPEAT-registered inkjet printers.”
“At least one in every of these latest updates particularly focused a single producer of remanufactured cartridges without having any affect on non-remanufactured third-party cartridges utilizing functionally equivalent non-HP chips,” the grievance reads.
The trade group additionally claimed not less than 26 “killer firmware updates” occurred on EPEAT-registered HP laser printers since October 2020.
The grievance argues that the error message that customers see—”The indicated cartridges have been blocked by the printer firmware as a result of they comprise non-HP chips. This printer is meant to work solely with new or reused cartridges that have a brand new or reused HP chip. Replace the indicated cartridges to proceed printing”—go in opposition to EPEAT necessities, but HP markets dozens of Dynamic Security printers with EPEAT ecolabels.
Wordplay
The IITC’s grievance highlights quite a few locations the place HP claims EPEAT registration whereas seemingly contradicting the registry’s phrases.
For instance, it shared a EPEAT documentation (PDF) stating, “HP printers will not be designed to stop the usage of non-manufacturer cartridges and non-manufacturer containers.” Meanwhile, HP’s Dynamic Security web site says, “Dynamic Security geared up printers are meant to work solely with cartridges that have new or reused HP chips or digital circuitry. The printers use the dynamic safety measures to dam cartridges utilizing non-HP chips or modified or non-HP digital circuitry.”
“Perhaps it’s HP’s place that 4.9.2.1 permits it to dam any non-manufacturer cartridge that doesn’t use an HP chip. Regardless of whether or not HP cites ‘safety considerations’ or another excuse, 4.9.2.1 affords no such leeway. The language of 4.9.2.1 is unequivocal and unqualified,” the IITC’s grievance says.
Dynamic Security printers get periodic firmware updates that HP claims “can enhance, improve, or lengthen the printer’s performance and options, shield in opposition to safety threats, and serve different functions” but in addition “block cartridges utilizing a non-HP chip or modified or non-HP circuitry from working within the printer, together with cartridges that work right this moment.” Sometimes these cartridges are over 90 % full, in keeping with the IITC, which fails to see the place the “safety” in “Dynamic Security” is available in:
The reality is, Dynamic Security has nothing in any respect to do with safety, and all the things to do with irritating shoppers who select non-HP cartridges in an effort to enhance gross sales of real HP cartridges.