HP takes over Samsung printing, and also blocks third party inks

Irish Steve

In separate reports, HP are taking over the printing divisions of Samsung, and have recently released new firmwares, or updates to printers that are now blocking third party ink cartridges.

I've not been a lover of HP since they decided not to release a Vista driver for a printer that was less than 2 years old, and with these latest news items, I hope that the EU regulators are going to take a very long hard look at the increasingly monopolistic attitudes of HP.

If Samsung are going to be effectively absorbed into HP, that's going to reduce even further the choices that are available to users, and the choices are limited enough already, the cost of printing is high enough as it is, without the monopoly and predatory practices that are being used to force users to use high price inks.

PrzemoF

Vote with your money. I had HP with continuous ink supply system, now Epson with rechargeable cartridges from Marrutt.

Tow

Here is more into on HP firmware bricking the printer inks: HP’s DRM sabotages off-brand printer ink cartridges with self-destruct date
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/hps-drm-sabotages-off-brand-printer-ink-cartridges-with-self-destruct-date/