Canon is facing a lawsuit that could force it to change how its all-in-one printers react to running out of ink.
As HotHardware reports, Canon USA is being sued by David Leacraft in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Leacraft filed a class-action complaint which points to Canon advertising its all-in-one printers as multifunction devices capable of print, copy, scan, and fax functionality. The problem is, if they run out of ink, Canon disables the scan and fax functionality.
In the past when this issue has been raised by customers on Canon’s support forums, the company responded by explaining the functionality is being disabled to protect the printer. In a forum post published back in 2016, Canon responded to a customer querying why he couldn’t scan without ink in his MG 5420 by stating:
“If you are getting a “Ink Out” error, you will not be able to use the unit until the ink is replaced. These precautions are in place to prevent damage to the printer from occurring if printing with no ink is attempted. The printer uses the ink to cool the printhead during the printing process. If no ink is present, the printhead could be damaged or the unit would require service.”
Scanning doesn’t require any printing, so this answer doesn’t explain why the functionality is disabled. Leacraft argues in his complaint that what Canon is doing is a “design issue.” The complaint goes on to say:
“Canon does not represent or warn consumers that ink is a necessary component in order to scan or fax documents. As a result, consumers are forced to incur unexpected and unnecessary burden and expense in the form of ink purchases or in the alternative be unable to scan or fax documents using the so-called all-in-one device.”
Leacraft is demanding a jury trial and seeks monetary damages, injunctive relief, and for Canon to “immediately cease the misleading advertising and marketing campaign and engage in a corrective campaign to inform consumers of the use of misleading advertising.
The question this lawsuit is asking, and hopes to ask a jury, is whether anyone would purchase a multifunction printer if they knew beforehand that it required a regular supply of ink to scan or fax documents? I suspect a lot of consumers would not.
