Brother International Customers File Class Action Lawsuit Against Brother International Over Brother Color Laser Printers and Ink Cartridges
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Brother International in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of those who purchased Brother Color Laser Printers including models HL-4070CDW, 4040CN, 4040CDN, 4050CDN, DCP-9040CN, 9042CDN, 9045CDN, and MFC-9440CN, 9450CDN, 9840CDW using color cartridges TN-110 and/or TN-115, which were manufactured, distributed, marketed and sold by Brother International, according to the Brother class action complaint.
The Brother International class action complaint alleges that the “Printers and Cartridges that Brother manufactures and sells are designed to force the Plaintiff and Class Members to prematurely replace all three of the color Cartridges at once when there is represented life and toner remaining in the Cartridges” and that the “Printers are designed to stop printing until all three of the Cartridges are replaced forcing the Plaintiffs to needlessly spend money on new Cartridges and depriving them of the represented life and toner in the existing Cartridges.”
If You Have Thoughts On The Brother International Color Laser Printer and Ink Cartridge Class Action Lawsuit, Share Your Class Action Comments Below.
BRAVO! Nail these bastards to a cross! Once you win this one, we can go after the biggest thief of all – HP
Slightly off the subject maybe, but a plea for people to think about the ethics of purchasing things like compatible toners and printer ink. Do try and think about, for example, the materials the product is manufactured from, the human rights of the employees where they’re made and the green credentials of retailers. And endeavour to recycle instead of throwing away. Thanks!!!!
Anyone who knows printers knows this won’t go far in court. If the printer driver is set to color then its going to override the application settings and use each color cartridge to mix with the black. Therefore, if you print all black with the color setting, its going to use the other colors until each all run out at the same time. All you’d have to do is set to driver to black/monochrome/grayscale and it doesn’t use the color at all. I’ve had the same color printer for two years and have only had to change the black, never the colors.
That’s not true for the MFC printers. I have one and once the color ones are out you can’t print anything – even if you have the settings set to greyscale. It’s obscenely obnoxious.
This is also going on with the Brother MFC line as well, the cartridge has a self winding mechonism that tells the printer you are out of ink after a certain # of pages, however after some investigation I have found that resetting this geared mechanism has shown to yield 1500 or so more pages, WTF, this is a huge shakedown.
I agree that this won’t go far. I have one and if you set it to Mono it prints fine in black and white even though the colors are out. Sometimes you have to make sure the program you are printing from like Word is also set to black and white because sometimes it overrides. There’s even a setting on the unit itself to set to output color black and white.
You’re missing the point of the lawsuit . Read the complaint.
I found this thread while trying to find if there is any class action going against Samsung.
I bought a CLX-3175 Samsung. These machines are rigged to scam you into forcing you into buying all the color cartridges (and black) as soon as you’ve printed about 1,000 pages – EVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T USED THE COLORS!
The machine prints out a report that shows toner usage on each cartridge. BUT… the starter cartridges don’t have a chip on them that the “real” cartridges you buy (supposedly) have that count pages accurately. So… every page that originates from the computer is “counted” as using all of the colors even if you only printed black and white.
Then (joy, oh joy!) when printer “estimates” that the colors run out, (I was told by techs) the machine will shut down and won’t even let you print black only documents.
So… this means that as soon as you’ve printed about 1,000 pages you will have to go out and buy $210 worth of cartridges – whether you used the color toners… or not.
I’m fuming mad over this. I’ve bought a laser to be economical. There’s nothing economical about 21c per sheet of black printing!
So… I’m off to look around some more and see if anyone is doing a class action on Samsung, too.
I HATE, HATE , HATE THE BROTHER PRINTERS.
WHY? YOU CAN’T JUST FLOW WITH YOUR BUSINESS . IS “ALWAYS” AN INK PROBLEM AND U HAVE TO CHANGE THE INK EVERY THREE TO FOUR WKS. THE PRINER IS SET TO AUOTMATICLLY ‘MAKE’ YOU DO IT OR YOU CAN NOT GO ON WITH YOU BUSSINESS . IS ‘NOT’ DEPENDABLE , IS A RIP OFF TO THE PUPLIC, IS MORE LIKE A FOW THEN A BROTHER. IS NOT IT’S BROTHERS KEEPER!!! BROTHER PRINTERS SUCK!!! AND I HATE THEM. HP PRINTERS ANY DAY FOR ME!!! IS MORE DEPENDABLE. INK LAST SO MUCH LONGER AT ONE PRICE. ONLY TWO CARTS. TO USE PRINTER. 🙂 LASTS TWO TO THREE TIMES LONGER THEN Brother.
You’re right. it’s a total scam. but there is a way around it. there is a lever on each cartridge that gets pressed in when you first put in the cartridge. you’re not supposed to know this but you can reset it. push it in with a letter opener or something and put it back in. The printer thinks it’s a new cartridge and starts printing perfectly.
Let this be a wake-up call to all the OEM, Original Equipment Manufacturers.
Other OEM are leaning towards Anti-Trust Violations, and Clayton Act Violations by monopolizing their toner supplies.
However, precedents have already been set by: IMAGE TECHNICAL SERVICE INC CPO v. EASTMAN KODAK CO.
Has anyone noticed that when the Brother Machines say toner empty, the cartridge still has plenty of life? We have a MFC-9560CDW, after only 2300 prints (not full pages) toner empty came on, forced to replace with new Cartridge. After reading on Google found way to reset the printer, and that same “empty cartridge has now printed and additional 2500 pages with excellent quality. Had another brother laser printer MFC-8440 and had the same issues.
In calling brother, they told me that is the way it is, and that resetting the printer will cause them to void the warranty as well as remanufactured toner cartridges. For the MFC-9560CDW the reset is done just by putting a new cartridge in and taking it out as this resets the gear, then you just put the old one back in. For the MFC-8440 it involved just covering some clear windows on the toner cartridge and using it until the prints became light.
It seems Brother is setting the machines to show Toner is empty to increase their profits, forcing one to buy more Cartridges when the ones in use are not near empty, it also becomes an environmental issue as well.
Is this grounds for a Class Action Lawsuit?
Sure does. Are you a California resident and is this a clor printer or Black only?
This stinks. I used to love my Brother printer. Now I hate it.
Not only has Brother misrepresented there product in this way but they advertise these same cartridges as high yield saying that they will produce 3000 to 6000 pages. The high yield cartridges I have purchased produce less that 1900 at at the lowest toner usage setting on the printer. I have had at least three cartridges produce less than 900. The vendor had to replace every cartridge he has sold me, and he must know this is a ripoff because they never complain, just send me a new cartridge that produces another 1000 copies, and when it does I call them and they replace it. Regardless Brother needs to come clean with this and at the very least cut their cartridge costs by 80% or 90%, because have clearly misrepresented their product.
BROTHER inc. are crooks! I bought a MFC-255CW. New cartridges bought a month ago. Says I’m out of black & magenta! Haven’t printed 100 pages. Need to scan something; no go. This printer is going on a one way trip to the gun range. Youtube video to follow!!!
The toner warning can be reset.
Every model seems different. Sometimes in hardware, sometimes in software.
Here are software instructions for the MFC-9560 cdw
http://www.helpowl.com/q/Brother%20International/MFC9970CDW/Technical-Support/reset-toner-override/117283
I have a business. I was to get 1,400 copies with the black and up to 2,200 with the color copies. I feel they use false advertising. I get no where near that amount per cartridge.
I was so pissed when the cartridges ran out of ink that I took them apart to find out if they truly where empty. There was plenty of ink left. I had just spent $240 on three color cartridges on $100 machine. That will be the last Brother machine or ink cartridge I buy from those S.O.B.’s.
I have to say the brother printer i have MFC-J625DW sucks in term of ink cartilage usage. Even when the Ink is half way down, it’ll tell you that the ink toner is empty. WTF, so much of ink wastage-as i have to change it, otherwise it won’t go further and print. The printer companies have become so cunning- they sell the printer @ a cheaper price & give minimum amount ink cartridges, so that they can later sell separate cartridges @ a higher rate, & this the way they make money – first by having stupid ink sensing tech inside the printer & and then selling cartridges.
I have a MFC-9560. It started to give me low toner messages, and then gave me a “Printer Error 73” message.
The print repair shop thought they’d fixed it by resetting the ink toners. But after I brought it home, the 73 message came up again. This is a $600 printer and is a piece of junk. I would gladly join a class action suit.
All the printer companies do this….. They “dump” the printer on the market at cost, and then make profit off the toner sales. It is in their interest to thwart or make difficult ALL attempts at refilling or extending the life of their cartridges.
Fortunately, there are tons of YouTube videos and websites with instructions on how to defeat the printers. Some is hardware-based (flag gears, switches, light sensors) and some is software-based (reset sequences, software driver settings).
You need to do your research. Although I am disgusted by the approach printer companies have taken, those who know how to defeat the system (aka “hack” the printer) can get GREAT printers at CHEAP prices because we know to buy refill kits and learn the tricks.
If you want to do MAXIMUM DAMAGE to these printer companies, buy their cheap printers on sale, then hack them and use refill kits so they can’t make any money from the ink!
I had already 5 Brother printers in the last 2 years. Each one of them fail to perform after 6 months even after using authentic Brother purchased ink at the Office Depot and I can prove this. It is my desire to join a Class Action Suit since Brother is producing defective printers and something should be done about this. These printers are expensive and they should last at leat 1 or 2 years for residential use. Thanks for your assistance. Please contact me via e-mail since I have “proof of this” SML