Canon sued for limiting printer/scanner limitations

Another remarkable story in the world of consumer deception. When you buy a multi-function device for printing, scanning and copying, do you expect the scanner to stop working when the device runs out of ink?

Your answer is probably no, like it would be for most logical reasoning people.

But still this is what happened to several consumers who bought such devices from manufacturer Canon. The ink cartridges must be present in the device and must not be empty, or you cannot use the device for scanning! Oh, and while we are at it, don’t print in gray-scal if the colored cartridges are empty…

Most people know already that many printers and multi-function devices are relatively cheap. This is simply because the money is made on the sale of ink cartridges during the life span of the printer. But forcing cartridge sales this way does seem a little unethical to me to say the least.

Not accepting it

But not everyone is taking it laying down! It appears a New York resident is not accepting this limitation of his device. He filed a class action lawsuit against Canon claiming he, and many people with him, would not have bought such a device from Canon if these limitations were known. And of course this limitation is nowhere present in the advertising material.

Assuming the class action will be accepted by the court, it will be interesting to see where this will end. There is something to say for protecting the printer from damage with empty cartridges (or even expired cartridges for that matter).  But how does using a scanner function affect the printing function?

In case you are looking for a new multi-function device, HP AiO printer/scanner combinations do not have such limitations to my knwoledge. Actually, I personally have been using an HP OfficeJet for a few years like this already. Epson, or Brother? I have no personal experience with those, but make sure you check before you buy.

If you have similar experiences (or even opposing views), we’d love to hear from you!