In a change to the regular Canon sues other companies, a Japanese company is proposing to sue Canon Inc, for changes made to their ink cartridges.
Osaka based Ecorica Co., Ltd., (Ecorica) is proposing to sue Canon Inc, for 30 million yen (€242K / $286K) for changing printer cartridge specifications to frustrate its lower priced reused cartridge business in violation of Japan’s anti-monopoly law the Asahi Shimbun reports.
Established in 2003, Ecorica sells remanufactured inkjet and toner cartridges through more than 6,000 stores nationwide, including home electronics mass retailers, PC specialty stores, camera mass retailers, and stationery stores.
The proposed complaint will be based on the changes Canon made to its chip that it released in 2017 which Ecorica allege blocked the ability for their recycled cartridges to show the ink levels in their cartridges and led to a reduced demand for their recycled cartridges.
Legal actions against Canon are rare, but they do happen and as previously reported in The Recycler: In June 2015 Canon USA Inc. settled with a group of plaintiffs, who alleged that Canon’s Pixma printers were defective making them inoperable, and typically this happens after the one-year warranty is up.
Canon agreed to pay $930,000 (€848,307), by way of $50 in cash or $75 for a store voucher to use in the online Canon store. The company also agreed to extend the warranty period by nine months for those who have print head problems.
Canon denied the allegations in the class action lawsuits, that the Pixma printers contain any kind of defect, even though the company agreed to the terms of this settlement proposal.
