The OEM has been on the receiving end of a Class Action lawsuit that was filed against the company in September, alleging Brother International Corporation (BIC) “denies users access to printing toner in laser toner cartridges that it sells”.
In court papers seen by The Recycler, BIC is on the receiving end of a Class Action lawsuit filed by Zeev Friedman, Esq. d/b/a The Friedman Law Firm (Plaintiff) in the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
The lawsuit “asserts two putative class action claims for (1) trespass to chattels, and (2) conversion based on allegations that BIC denies users access to printing toner in laser toner cartridges that it sells.”
In the initial complaint from 2018, which was dismissed, the plaintiff stated that he purchased two TN-620 laser toner cartridges for $127.48 in April 2014 and alleged that “Brother laser printers will refuse to print once a . . . cartridge has been used a certain numbers of times,” thereby allegedly denying access to useable toner.
The plaintiff contended that the cartridge “in fact contains enough toner to print hundreds or thousands of additional pages of text.” The plaintiff sought compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees, as well as “other or further relief as the Court deems [Plaintiff] and the class members entitled.” The papers show that the plaintiff calculates that the unusable toner in the cartridges would amount to 40 percent, 2,000 of 5,000 pages he was not able to print with the cartridges.
This new Class Action lawsuit has similar claims with a few amendments from Zeev Friedman, Esq. d/b/a The Friedman Law Firm, which BIC says are “more vague” than in the first claim.
