HP additionally now offers disclaimers on the product pages for many of the printers that it sells, stating that the system “is meant to work solely with cartridges which have a brand new or reused HP chip” and makes use of Dynamic Safety “to dam cartridges utilizing a non-HP chip.”

“Periodic firmware updates will keep the effectiveness of those measures and block cartridges that beforehand labored. A reused HP chip allows using reused, remanufactured, and refilled cartridges,” the disclaimer says, including a hyperlink to a support page about Dynamic Safety. The assist web page notes that “most HP printers will be configured to obtain updates both routinely or with a notification that means that you can select whether or not to replace or not.” Nevertheless, some HP applications, like On the spot Ink, require customers to allow computerized firmware updates on HP printers.

All because of this, regardless of the just lately accepted settlement, Dynamic Safety stays a vital a part of most HP printers, and HP will proceed to really feel entitled to use firmware updates to instantly block printers made after December 1, 2016, from utilizing non-HP ink and toner. House owners of HP printers made after that date that enable computerized updates and nonetheless work with third-party equipment shouldn’t be stunned if that means’s instantly bricked in the future.

Dynamic litigation

Whereas HP is not paying a sum to class-action members this time, it has beforehand agreed to pay thousands and thousands in relation to bricking printers: In 2022, it agreed to pay $1.35 million to European customers, and in 2020, the Italian Antitrust Authority fined HP for 10 million euros. In 2019, HP stated it might pay $1.5 million to settle the same class-action case in California, and it paid roughly AUD$50 every to Australian prospects impacted by Dynamic Safety in 2018.

There’s additionally an open case towards HP concerning its ink practices, a class-action grievance filed within the US District Courtroom for the Northern District of Illinois in January 2024. The lawsuit facilities on Dynamic Security firmware updates pushed “in late 2022 and early 2023″ and accuses HP of making a “monopoly within the aftermarket for substitute cartridges” [PDF]. The plaintiffs search an order declaring that HP broke the regulation, an injunction towards Dynamic Safety, and financial and punitive damages.

One other lawsuit, filed in mid-2022 about some HP all-in-one printers failing to scan or fax without ink, was dismissed.

HP’s printer arm has different urgent issues to deal with, although. Earlier this month, a firmware replace broke specific HP printer models, stopping them from printing, even when utilizing HP-brand ink. HP informed Ars final week that it’s “actively engaged on an answer.”