HP and Plaintiffs Reach Settlement in Printer Firmware Class-Action Lawsuit

HP Inc. has reached a settlement in a U.S. class-action lawsuit brought against it by Mobile Emergency Housing, Track Rat Enterprises, Performance Automotive, and others. The lawsuit involved HP’s use of dynamic security and firmware updates to prevent the use of third-party toner cartridges. Last week, the parties notified the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, that they had reached a settlement.

The plaintiffs filed the case against HP in December 2020.

They alleged that the firmware updates were unfair business practices, leading to significant financial losses, and that they were implemented without proper notification and led to the malfunctioning of printers when their printers detected non-HP cartridges.

The lawsuit also alleged that “HP wrongfully compels users of its printers to buy and use only HP ink and toner supplies by transmitting firmware updates without authorization to HP printers over the Internet that lock out its competitors’ ink and toner supply cartridges.” It also argued that HP’s firmware “updates” act as malware, “adding, deleting or altering code, diminishing the capabilities of HP printers, and rendering the competitors’ supply cartridges incompatible with HP printers.”

Now, however, both parties have agreed to a settlement in principle, subject to the approval of the court, ending the lawsuit. HP and the plaintiffs are expected to notify the court by September 20th on whether they’ve fully reached an agreement. If they have, a motion for preliminary settlement approval will be filed by October 11th.