Consumer Advocacy Group to Pursue HP

The Australian consumer advocacy group, Choice, says it will begin investigating whether HP has breached Australian Consumer Law.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald (The Herald), Choice is concerned that HP is locking customers into buying only its expensive ink.

Globally, owners of HP printers are expressing outrage on social media because their printers have stopped working after a firmware upgrade was unleashed onto their unsuspecting printers.

Printer owners using Aftermarket ink cartridges in their HP printers are receiving error messages such as “cartridge problem”, “one or more cartridges are missing or damaged” or “older generation cartridge.” The Herald asserts HP wants its customers to stop using third-party-made ink cartridges. It also states manufacturers and sellers of ink cartridges speculated that HP had pre-programmed a failure date of unbranded cartridges in the firmware of certain printers. The last firmware update was in March. RT Media reported last week that the “time bomb”, as The Herald calls it, went off on September 13.

Apparently, The Herald has evidence that HP has been deleting posts and replies about the error messages in a possible act of covering up the extent of the customer outrage.

The Herald reports consumers have long opted to use unbranded ink cartridges as they are far cheaper than the official ones.

So Choice is getting involved. “Even worse, it’s doing this after consumers have already bought the product, meaning they haven’t given their customers the opportunity to vote with their wallets and buy a different printer,” says spokesman Tom Godfrey. “If consumers bought an HP printer relying on the fact that it could use non-HP ink, and HP has unilaterally taken that functionality away, then there is a risk that the company is breaching consumer law.”

According to The Herald, Choice is assessing whether HP may have misled or deceived their customers under section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law. “After years of being able to use non-HP ink, consumers have a reasonable expectation that they will be able to continue to choose which ink they will use,” he says.

Click here for the full Sydney Morning Herald.
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