HP sued (again) for blocking third-party ink from printers, accused of monopoly

HP has used its “Dynamic Security” firmware updates to “create a monopoly” of alternative printer ink cartridges, a lawsuit filed towards the corporate on January 5 claims. The lawsuit, which is looking for class-action certification, represents yet one more type of litigation towards HP for bricking printers after they attempt to use ink that does not bear an HP brand.

The lawsuit (PDF), which was filed in US District Court within the Northern District of Illinois, names 11 plaintiffs and seeks an injunction towards HP requiring the corporate to disable its printer firmware updates from stopping the use of non-HP branded ink. The lawsuit additionally seeks financial damages larger than $5,000,000 and a trial by jury.

The lawsuit focuses on HP printer firmware updates issued in late 2022 and early 2023 that left customers seeing this message on their printers after they tried to print with non-HP ink:

HP was unsuitable to situation a firmware replace affecting printer performance, and customers weren’t notified that accepting firmware updates “might injury any options of the printer,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit additionally questions HP’s observe of encouraging individuals to register their printers after which quietly releasing updates that change the printers’ performance. Additionally, the lawsuit highlights the truth that the use of non-HP ink cartridges would not break HP’s printer guarantee.

The submitting reads:

… it’s not sensible or economically rational to buy a brand new printer as a way to keep away from buying HP alternative ink cartridges. Therefore, as soon as customers buy their printers, the Dynamic Security firmware updates lock them into buying HP-branded ink.

HP is proud of its technique of locking in printer clients. Last month, HP CFO Marie Myers praised the corporate’s motion from transactional fashions to forcing clients into steady buys by choices like Instant Ink, HP’s month-to-month ink subscription program.

“We completely see whenever you transfer a buyer from that pure transactional mannequin … whether or not it is [to] Instant Ink, plus including on that paper, we kind of see a 20 p.c uplift on the worth of that buyer since you’re locking that particular person, committing to a longer-term relationship,” Myers mentioned, as quoted by The Register.

HP says Dynamic Security is supposed to “defend the standard of our buyer expertise, keep the integrity of our printing techniques, and defend our mental property.” HP’s Dynamic Security web page says that HP printers with the function “are meant to work solely with cartridges which have new or reused HP chips or digital circuitry. The printers use the Dynamic Security measures to dam cartridges utilizing non-HP chips or modified or non-HP digital circuitry.”

Conveniently timed priced hikes?

The new lawsuit claims that HP’s firmware updates pressured clients to purchase HP-brand ink that prices greater than rivals.

When reached for remark, Peggy Wedgworth, a senior associate on the Milberg regulation agency and one of the legal professionals representing the plaintiffs on this case, instructed Ars Technica:

HP successfully monopolized the aftermarket for alternative ink cartridges in violation of federal and state antitrust legal guidelines, which pressured HP printer homeowners to buy solely HP-branded ink at excessive costs and lose the worth of any non-HP branded alternative ink cartridges.

The lawsuit accuses HP of elevating costs on its ink “in the identical time interval” that it issued its late 2022 and early 2023 firmware updates, which “create[d] a monopoly within the aftermarket for alternative cartridges, allowing [HP] to lift costs with out worry of being undercut by rivals.

The lawsuit would not cite a supply to again up its price-hike claims. But Ars Technica had a fast take a look at Amazon pricing, through Camelcamelcamel, for some of HP’s ink choices that, as of this writing, carefully match (inside cents) the pricing on HP’s web site. We discovered that ink costs for some—however not all— of HP’s ink cartridges did, in truth, enhance in late 2022 and early 2023. There are numerous components that might contribute to a product’s value growing, although.