HP Office Jet Pro 8500 Defect Class Action Lawsuit

 HP Office Jet Pro 8500 Defect Class Action Lawsuit

By Sarah Pierce

Hewlett-Packard can’t shake a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of knowing that its 8500 series printers have a defect that causes the printer to randomly skip pages when copying, scanning and faxing. A federal judge refused HP’s bid to dismiss the class action lawsuit, saying the company should have known about the defect because it claims to test its printers prior to releasing them on the marketplace.

According to the HP printer class action lawsuit, HP’s Office Jet Pro All-in-One printer in the 8500 series has a defect that causes the device to skip pages. As a result, the document feeder can only take two to three sheets at a time, even though it is advertised as being able to hold 50 sheets.

Consumers began complaining about the HP Office Jet Pro 8500 All-in-One printer defect as early as April 2009.

In April, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh dismissed the HP 8500 printer class action lawsuit, finding that the proposed class failed to provide proof that would suggest HP knew about the alleged printer defect. Lead plaintiff Chaim Kowalsky filed an amended complaint in May, saying “HP’s claims regarding the ‘core functions’ of the 8500 printer ‘could only be verified as accurate through testing of the printer.”

Judge Koh found that Kowalsky raised additional facts to “support a plausible inference” that HP knew about the defect and rejected the company’s latest motion to dismiss. 

“According to plaintiff, HP claims in its advertising and on its website that it tests its printers using ‘the recognized ISO/IEC 24734 and 24735 standards’ prior to releasing them to the marketplace,” the judge wrote. “The 24735 standard requires multiple tests using repeated scanning of a multi-page document through the printer’s [automatic document feeder].”

The case is Chaim Kowalsky, et al. v. Hewlett-Packard Company, et al., Case No. 10-CV-02176-LHK, United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division.