Lawsuits for seemingly misleading marketing and product claims are pretty common. In the latest such development, it seems Canon is under fire. The company sells several All-in-one printer models that can also function as scanners or even do more like faxing. Apparently, however, there are many such models that have the scan and other additional functions disabled when the ink cartridges for the printer are low on or out of ink. This issue is not new as there are old threads dating back to 2016 with people complaining about it. (Thread 1, 2)
As such, David Leacraft, who is probably an annoyed customer, has decided to sue Canon USA for this matter as he felt misled into the product purchase he made. According to the lawsuit, Leacraft had purchased a PIXMA MG2522 model that can print, copy and scan.
The lawsuit says:
Canon does not represent or warn consumers that ink is a necessary component in order to scan or fax documents.
[..] Canon knew, or should have known, that its representations and advertisements regarding the All-in-One Printers were false and misleading
The lawsuit then goes on to allege that Canon is only doing this in order to make more money from such ink sales that become necessary to keep the devices functional as scanners or fax machines.
There is no reason or technical basis for manufacturing the All-in-One Printers with an ink level detection function that causes the scanner to stop functioning when the ink is low or empty. Canon designed the All-in-One Printers in such a way to require consumers to maintain ink in their devices[...] The result is an increase in ink sales from which Canon obtains significant profits.
You can find the full lawsuit here.
via BleepingComputer