Customers found their printers were bricked when they dared to use non-HP ink. In December 2020, two businesses—Mobile Emergency Housing and Performance Automotive & Tire Centre—filed a lawsuit accusing the ink-stained tech giant of force-feeding printers with a remote update that locked out third-party ink and toner.
The complaint didn’t mince words, describing HP’s firmware as “malware,” accusing it of sneakily deleting code, and hobbling printers.
HP dubbed its corporate brickery Dynamic Security—because “security” is a printer that suddenly refuses to work until you insert overpriced corporate-blessed ink.
After years of legal wrangling and HP’s lawyers presumably earning enough billable hours to buy a small yacht, the company has now agreed to a settlement. Under the deal, HP admits no wrongdoing, pays its actual customers absolutely nothing, and offers the original plaintiffs a token amount of $5,000 for their time.
Meanwhile, their legal team gets $725,000 in fees.
The only tangible “win” for the average ink victim? HP has now promised, in writing, to let owners of specific printer models (a lengthy list of Color LaserJets and LaserJets) choose whether or not they want future firmware updates containing its “screw-you-and-your-cartridges' feature.
This only applies to a specific list of printer models caught in the November 2020 firmware debacle. The rest of HP’s printer catalogue remains firmly shackled to Dynamic Security, which HP continues to promote like a feature instead of the digital extortion it truly is.
Printers built after 1 December 2016 are still fair game for the “buy HP or else” treatment. And if you’ve enabled automatic updates, don’t be shocked if your once-friendly machine wakes up one day and decides it no longer recognises the cartridge you put in five minutes ago.
HP has plastered disclaimers all over its product pages, declaring that its devices are designed to work only with cartridges containing HP chips. Cartridges with reused HP chips may still function, but those with third-party components from foreign sources must be thrown out.
HP’s “Instant Ink” subscription service requires users to enable automatic firmware updates, effectively handing the company a direct line into your printer’s brain.
Despite this settlement, HP’s legal headaches are far from over. A new class-action lawsuit is brewing in Illinois over Dynamic Security updates released in late 2022 and early 2023, with plaintiffs accusing HP of attempting to establish a monopoly in the aftermarket ink market.
And another lawsuit from 2022—concerning HP all-in-one printers that refused to scan or fax if they lacked ink—was dismissed because it's reasonable for a scanner to malfunction if it doesn’t have magenta ink.
Of course, all this anti-consumer nonsense would be easier to swallow if HP’s firmware updates didn’t occasionally break its printers, as happened earlier this month.
In a stunning act of karmic justice, some models became paperweights, even with official HP-brand ink. HP, in its infinite wisdom, says it’s “actively working on a solution.” There is no doubt that the solution involves another firmware update and a warning not to get too clever with your cartridge choices.
