Canon Sued in Class-Action for Printhead Defect

According to Law360, Canon U.S.A. Inc. is now facing a proposed class action alleging several of its Pixma printer models have printhead defect that often renders the machines useless shortly after the warranty runs out.

Texas resident Marcus Ho has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, claiming the OEM “has long known about the defect but neglected to issue a recall, and also refused to pay for repairs beyond the printers’ one-year warranty”.

Ho declared after limited use, certain models of Canon’s Pixma printers would display an error message, which “disables all Printer functions, including scanning and facsimile”. In this case, the problem concerns the following printers: Pixma MP530, MP600, MP620, MX700, MX850, MX860, MP960 and MX982 and MG5320 printers.

The plaintiff asserted that Canon knew about the problem because “it performed repairs on the faulty printers during the warranty period and failed to recall or extend the warranty for what it knew to be a defective product.” He accused Canon of violating the New Consumer Protection Act, breaching express and implied warranty and unjust enrichment.