The Recycler Issue 333

WORLD FOCUS
GLOBAL HP, Counterfeits, IP, Class Action
HP responds to class action and reports
more counterfeiting action
The initial Complaint was filed by Christina Rose on 10 April. The OEM also reported that Between
October 2019 and March 2020, it has reportedly seized nearly 200,000 in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.
The initial class action complaint was
filed by Christina Rose in the United
States District Court Northern District
of California on 10 April, and alleges
that HP fails to disclose that the printers
use substantial amounts of coloured
ink when printing images and text in
black and white (a process known as
“underprinting”).
HP Inc. has answered the Complaint
filed by Christina Rose with a ‘Motion
to Dismiss’ the case, alleging that in
the original complaint, the Plaintiff
has “…failed to plead a duty to disclose,
a material omission, or an intent to
defraud”, “…failed to plead a claim for
any predicate violation of law”, “…failed
to plead that she was in privity with
Defendant or that the product was unfit
for its ordinary use” and “…has not alleged
any actionable misrepresentations or
omissions”.
HP says in its motion, that it did not
have a duty to disclose to the Plaintiff the
details of the technical process and that “…
it complied with that duty by providing
detailed information about underprinting
on its website and in its online user
manuals, which have been available and
accessible to any consumer well before
Plaintiff purchased her printer.”
Therefore, HP concludes in its motion,
that “Plaintiff cannot seek injunctive
relief because she has always had access to
information regarding the underprinting
process for HP’s printers and thus cannot
plausibly allege she will be injured in the
future.”
HP said that the Plaintiff ’s complaint
should be dismissed with prejudice.
Tech Trends KE reported that in raids
held since October 2019 and March 2020,
HP’s Anti-Counterfeiting and Fraud
(ACF) Programme has managed to help
seize close to 200,000 counterfeit printer
cartridges and components in Kenya,
Nigeria and Tanzania.
Tech Trends KE said that local authorities
managed to disrupt “wholesalers and
retailers of fake products through a series
of raids carried out in retail outlets,
warehouses and manufacturing facilities
across the region.”
5,400 counterfeit toner cartridges
from twelve retailers have been seized
in February 2020 alone. Between October
2019 and March 2020, 185,000 fake
items were seized in raids in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania and in Nigeria HP
seized 7,100 illegal items “in a series
of outlet shop raids.”
Tech Trends KE reported that one of the
searches in Dar es Salaam “was initiated
following a Customer Delivery Inspection
(CDI)”, a service that HP offers to its
large and medium customers, “whereby
if a customer suspects that counterfeit
products have been included in a shipment
of supplies, HP will check the products on
site and act accordingly.”
There have been over 12 million
counterfeits and components seized
throughout the EMEA during the past
years by local authorities backed by HP
Inc and the OEM itself has conducted
more than 4,500 “audits and inspections
of partners stocks or suspicious deliveries”.
HP Inc’s ACF programme is responsible
for educating its customers and partners
on what to look out for in counterfeit
products and works closely with local and
worldwide law enforcements to find and
destroy illegal operations that produce
fake HP Inc printing consumables. ■
18 Issue 333 August 2020