Brother Fails To Escape Toner Cartridge Class Action lawsuit

Brother has had some legal complaints against them dismissed by a New Jersey judge. However, the Japanese based printer manufacturer must still face a suit over inaccurate cartridge replacement messages.

    The dismissed complaints were over a breach of express and implied warranty, a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and injunctive relief claims.

    However, a host of state consumer protection claims will be considered. Plaintiffs say Brother stated its color toner cartridges would need to be replaced only when the toner was depleted. But in fact, its printers are designed to stop printing when only one of the three color toner cartridges becomes empty.

    Judge Wolfson agreed with Brother that text in the users guide and cartridge packaging are not a contract. But the judge added Brother had violated several state consumer protection laws, including New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and Florida consumer fraud legislation and California Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

    Counsel for the plaintiffs said his clients are pleased their consumer fraud act claims survived, and that the judge found there were misrepresentations made and there was an ascertainable loss as well. Counsel for Brother has made no comment at this time.