A customer tired of the tyranny of home printers is suing Canon because it disabled multiple functions of the all-in-one printer when it ran out of ink.

Consumer printer manufacturers have long used the business model of razor blades—named after companies that sell razor handles cheaply but compatible replacement blades are much more expensive. Printers that can produce impressive color prints at home are surprisingly affordable, but this is because most of the profits come from overpriced replacement ink cartridges. Normally, when a color ink cartridge is running low, these home printers will be completely disabled through software, forcing owners to continue to purchase alternatives, even if they only want to print black and white text.

The advent of devices such as smartphones and even social media has made it easier to share photos digitally, which means that consumers are printing fewer photos. This has had an impact on the profitability of home printers, leading companies like Epson to launch printers (its EcoTank series) that are cheaper and easier to refill, and will not shut down completely when one type of ink runs out. But as David Leacraft discovered, not every printer manufacturer is following this path.

In a class action lawsuit against Canon filed in the United States Federal Court in New York last week, Leacraft was listed as the plaintiff. He discovered that their Canon Pixma MG6320 all-in-one printer would no longer scan or fax documents when in use. Although none of these functions require any printing, the ink has run out. According to Bleeping Computer, the problem can be traced back to at least 2016, when other customers reported the same problem to Canon through the company's online forum, and the company's support staff told them that all ink cartridges must be installed and ink to use the printer. All features.

The complaint states that Canon advertises its all-in-one printers as having many different functions, including printing, copying, scanning, and sometimes even faxing, but there is no warning that these functions depend on the amount of ink available.

"Canon does not represent or warn consumers that ink is a necessary component for scanning or faxing documents. As a result, consumers are forced to bear unexpected and unnecessary burdens and expenses in the form of purchasing ink, or cannot use so-called all-in-one devices to scan or Fax documents," the complaint said. It also asserted that “there is no reason or technical basis for making an all-in-one printer with ink level detection. This feature will cause the scanner to stop working when the ink is low or running out. The all-in-one printer designed by Canon requires consumers whether they intend to Printing must retain ink in its equipment. As a result, ink sales have increased, and Canon has made considerable profits from it."

We have contacted Canon to comment on the lawsuit, and we will update it when we receive a response.

A class action lawsuit with more than 100 members demanded at least $5,000,000, required a jury trial, and cited more than 20 Canon all-in-one printer models as exhibiting this problematic behavior. Based on the result and whether the court allows it to move forward, anyone who has purchased one of the reference all-in-one Canon models is eligible for compensation.

Can we talk about printers?

Does anyone here have ever owned a printer, it just...worked. Consistently? Every printer that I feel uncomfortable with needs to use is an uninterrupted nightmare. I can count the number of times I click to print on one hand, and hear the sound of the printer starting immediately, without having to check my connection, delete/reinstall the driver, restart the printer, or clear the print queue. And this is rarely a problem with the printer hardware itself, and paper jams will definitely occur, but usually it will not actually print and there are no mechanical problems at all.

To my surprise, in 2021, the printer and its drivers somehow are still very bad.