Hp Hit With Putative Class Action in Alabama Fed Courts Over Firmware

Toner News Mobile Forums Latest Industry News Hp Hit With Putative Class Action in Alabama Fed Courts Over Firmware

Date: Thursday October 20, 2016 01:05:49 pm
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
  • Author
    Posts

  • news
    Keymaster

    Hp Hit With Putative Class Action in Alabama Federal Court Over Firmware 
    HP Trying To Cut Out 3rd-Party Ink Cartridges, Suit Says

    ​By Chuck Stanley –Editing by Edrienne Su.

    Law360, Washington– HP Inc. was hit with a putative class action in Alabama federal court Tuesday for allegedly aiming to monopolize the printer ink market by using a 2015 firmware update to prevent HP printers from accepting third-party ink refills. 

    OfficeJet Pro printer owner Dan Bayse alleges that tech company HP included a “ticking time bomb” in a late-2015 firmware update that was designed to disable HP printers from accepting third-party, refilled or remanufactured ink cartridges when the update was activated.

    The update pushed out to OfficeJet printers was made intentionally and “without any warning" and harms third-party manufacturers of ink cartridges as well as owners of HP printers, in violation of the Sherman Act, according to Tuesday's suit.

    "These acts by [HP] are highly likely to destroy the competitive market for ink cartridges compatible with its printers, inasmuch as owners of the printers will no longer be able to purchase for use in the printers any ink cartridge not made by [HP],” the complaint states.

    Bayse points to a statement this month from HP that claimed the firmware update to the security chip on its OfficeJet printers is meant to “protect HP’s innovations and intellectual property.”

    As the largest manufacturer of inkjet printers in the U.S., representing more than half the market for personal printers, HP has long used low prices for its printers in an effort to drive sales of its premium-priced ink cartridge refills for the machines, according to the suit. Meanwhile, an entire industry of third-party ink cartridge manufacturers, refillers and resellers for HP printers, which is “national, substantial and competitive,” benefits owners of HP printers by offering ink refills at competitive prices, the complaint says.

    Bayse claims HP’s actions have the potential to destroy this market, harming both third-party cartridge companies and consumers who purchased their printers under the belief that they would be able to purchase ink refills from third-party companies.

    “By disabling its consumers’ ability to use the third-party, refilled or remanufactured cartridges of their choice in their HP printer, defendant HP has altered its printers — for the worse — from the products purchased by plaintiff and class members. The printers are now not what they were when purchased,” the suit states.

    Bayse is seeking actual, compensatory and punitive damages for consumers who purchased an OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro or OfficeJet Pro X printer between September 2009 and September 2016, in addition to compensation for legal expenses from HP.

    Bayse is represented by Taylor C. Bartlett, W. Lewis Garrison Jr., Mark Ekonen and Christopher Hood of Heninger Garrison Davis LLC.

    Counsel information for HP was not immediately available.

    The case is Bayse v. HP Inc., case number 2:16-cv-01583, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
    http://www.law360.com/articles/844932/hp-trying-to-cut-out-3rd-party-ink-cartridges-suit-says

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.