A California federal court has preliminarily approved Hewlett-Packard Co.’s proposal to give consumers $5 million in coupons redeemable at its online store to settle several class-action lawsuits alleging that its inkjet printers prematurely depleted or disabled their ink cartridges.
The lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, allege violations of state consumer protection statutes, breach of warranty and unjust enrichment. Each of the plaintiffs sought to lead a nationwide class of HP printer users going as far back as 2001.
The suits claim that HP’s inkjet printers, faxes and copiers are programmed to force customers to prematurely buy new ink cartridges. The machines either forcibly deplete the cartridges’ ink supply or deactivate the cartridges before their ink has run out, the plaintiffs say.
Further, the suits say, the devices would often refuse to function at all, even when attempting to perform actions like faxing or scanning that do not require ink, until the cartridge was replaced.
As part of the settlement, HP has agreed to change the “low on ink” message to say that ink level messages are estimates only. The messages will also say the cartridge may be used until the print quality becomes unacceptable.
HP will also clearly disclose how to disable “under printing,” or printing black text with color ink or a combination of black and color ink. Users will be able to, for example, select a “black print cartridge only” mode.
The company will also clearly disclose the expiration date for ink cartridges and will state why expiration dates are used.
Further, HP will set aside $5 million to provide credits worth $2 to $6 redeemable at its website. The credits will be redeemable for the purchase of printers and printer supplies. Class counsel will receive $2.9 million in attorney fees.
The settlement is subject to final court approval. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 28.
The plaintiffs were represented by Justin T. Berger of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy in Burlingame, Calif.
Defense counsel was Peter Sullivan of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles.
In re HP InkJet Printer Litigation, No. 05-CV-03580-JF, order preliminarily approving settlement entered (N.D. Cal., San Jose Div. Oct. 1, 2010).
Filed under: Blogroll, Industry News | Tagged: credits, HP, inkjet, premature, underprinting |
Inkjet News 
Leave a Reply