A Long Island, New York, man charges that Hewlett-Packard is misleading consumers with the "smart chip" technology that supposedly alerts users when their inkjet cartridges are about to run out. Dennis Just filed a $5 million class action lawsuit in federal district court accusing HP of breach of good faith, unjust enrichment and violation of New York business law.
HP touts its smart chip design as a convenience. But critics say it's primarily designed to stifle competition from companies that recycle old HP cartridges with new ink. The cartridges "expire" and can't be used in printers between 2 1/2 and four years after manufacture.
"The primary function of this impressive-sounding technology is to make it difficult or impossible to refill that cartridge," said a 2002 article in PC Buyer's Guide.
But an HP spokeswoman said Just's suit is "without merit."
The suit alleges HP, the world's largest maker of printers and accessories, "claimed to consumers that the smart chip would improve printer performance." Instead, it says, "the smart chip appears to be designed to secretly and deceptively increase the sale of HP replacement ink cartridges, whether or not ink remains in the cartridge and replacement is necessary."
Just's suit alleges the smart chip technology warns that replacements are needed when cartridges are "far from empty," then "immediately" steers them to an HP-sponsored Web site to buy replacements.
In March, HP sued two companies that sell recycled cartridges refilled with non-HP ink, alleging the ink violates HP's patents and that they mislabel packaging.
In 2003, a jury in North Carolina rejected a suit that claimed HP cheated customers by selling half-filled inkjet cartridges. Jurors determined that Hewlett-Packard Co. did not try to fool consumers into believing that the ink cartridges packed with its printers were full.
