Canon Sued for Disabling Scanner Function on All-in-One Printers Due to No Ink

From PC Mag: Canon is facing a lawsuit that could force it to change how its all-in-one printers react to running out of ink.

As HotHardware reports, Canon USA is being sued by David Leacraft in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Leacraft filed a class-action complaint which points to Canon advertising its all-in-one printers as multifunction devices capable of print, copy, scan, and fax functionality. The problem is, if they run out of ink, Canon disables the scan and fax functionality.

In the past when this issue has been raised by customers on Canon's support forums, the company responded by explaining the functionality is being disabled to protect the printer. In a forum post published back in 2016, Canon responded to a customer querying why he couldn't scan without ink in his MG 5420 by stating:

"If you are getting a "Ink Out" error, you will not be able to use the unit until the ink is replaced. These precautions are in place to prevent damage to the printer from occurring if printing with no ink is attempted. The printer uses the ink to cool the printhead during the printing process. If no ink is present, the printhead could be damaged or the unit would require service."

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