As printer manufacturers generally make most of their profits from selling ink, they try to force you to buy more ink than you need. And they try to make you buy their brand of ink and prevent you from purchasing generic ones.
There have been several suits against HP for various scams forcing customers to buy it’s ink. HP is the largest manufacturer of printers in the world.
The latest printer suit was filed Oct. 12, this time against Canon, the number 2 manufacturer.
The suit – filed in New York by the law firm of Levi & Korsinsky – accuses the company of preventing customers from making scans or faxing documents if their ink levels are low in their all-in-one printers. The suit also says that Canon did not disclose this limit to customers.
“Canon represents that the main functions of the All-in-One Printers include scanning and faxing documents, but fails to disclose to purchasing consumers that the All-in-One Printers suffer from the Design Issue,” says the suit.
“Only after consumers purchase the All-in-One Printers do they learn that they must maintain ink in their devices in order to scan or fax documents, functionalities that should not require ink.”
Ink cartridges retail for about $50.
“There is no reason or technical basis for manufacturing the All-in-One Printers with an ink level detection function that causes the scanner to stop functioning when ink is low or empty.
Canon designed the All-in-One Printers in such a way to require consumers to maintain ink in their devices regardless of whether they intend to print. The result is an increase in ink sales from which Canon obtains significant profits.”
The following Canon printers are the subjects of the law suit:
MAXIFY GX7020 MAXIFY GX6020 PIXMA TS3520 PIXMA G3260 PIXMA G7020 PIXMA G2260 PIXMA MX330 PIXMA MX452 PIXMA TS9520 PIXMA TR8620 PIXMA TS6420 PIXMA TS6320 PIXMA TR4520 PIXMA MG3620 PIXMA MG2522 PIXMA TS3320 PIXMA TR7020 PIXMA TS9521C PIXMA TS8320 PIXMA TR8520 PIXMA TR7520
