HP: your printer rejects ink it doesn't approve of

Your printer has a boss, and it isn't you. HP printers use a system called Dynamic Security that blocks cheaper third-party ink and toner cartridges.

Published Jul 13, 2026

What happened

One setting prevents the printer from accepting any cartridge other than HP's. Another permanently ties each cartridge to the first printer it's installed in, so it can't be refilled or moved to a different printer. It's enforced through firmware updates HP pushes to printers people already own. In March 2025 one of those updates, firmware version 20250209, left HP LaserJet MFP M234dw and M234dwe printers rejecting even genuine HP toner with "Error 11", per consumerrights.wiki.

There are some printer models where Dynamic Security can be turned off easily, though not all. Others can be downgraded to older firmware, but risk getting bricked if the process fails. HP's Instant Ink subscription puts a second lock on the cartridges: HP's own FAQ says "HP Instant Ink cartridges will not work after the end of the current billing cycle in which you cancel."

HP has faced multiple class-action lawsuits over the practice. The Superior Court of Quebec approved a national settlement on April 24, 2019, under which HP agreed "to not reactivate Dynamic Security in the Class Printers" and to pay up to CAD 700,000 in claims. Mobile Emergency Housing Corp. v. HP, No. 5:20-cv-09157, filed in the Northern District of California in December 2020, alleges HP firmware updates blocked the use of third-party ink and toner cartridges; the parties told the court in August 2024 that they had reached an agreement in principle to settle.

Cartridge lockout chips have already been to federal appeals court. In Lexmark v. Static Control, 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2004), the Sixth Circuit held that Lexmark's authentication routine did not effectively control access to the printer's code under Section 1201, because buying the printer is what gave access to it.

FULU's takeaway

A printer that only obeys HP is a warning about every device you buy, because the same playbook is spreading to everything.

Why this is a law problem

Most of these entries involve a digital lock guarding copyrighted software, and a lock like that sits under Section 1201 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. 1201. Subsection 1201(a)(1) makes it unlawful to bypass a lock that controls access to a copyrighted work, even when no copyright is infringed. Subsections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1) separately ban making or distributing the tools that do the bypassing.

Every three years the Librarian of Congress can exempt narrow classes of uses from the first ban. An exemption expires after three years and has to be re-argued, and the rulemaking has no authority over the tool bans, so a granted exemption still leaves no lawful supplier for the means to use it. FULU exists to reform or revoke this statute.

If you want this law changed, donations fund the work. FULU is a 501(c)(4). Donations to FULU are not tax-deductible, which is the tradeoff for being able to lobby without a limit.

Nothing on these pages says any company named here violated Section 1201. FULU is not a law firm, and this is not legal advice.

The original post

The slides below are the originals as posted. Where a slide and the text on this page disagree, go by the text; the text is the corrected, sourced record. Some slides also print an old wiki address that no longer works. The links on this page are current.

The third slide says a failed Instant Ink payment can lock the printer up entirely. HP's own FAQ, this entry's source, says cancelled-cycle cartridges stop working and nothing about a payment-failure lockout, so that claim stays out of the text.

A hand loading paper into a white and black HP office multifunction printer, with the headline 'Your HP printer rejects ink it doesn't approve of.'
Slide headed 'HP Dynamic Security' on a dark background, stating that HP printers use Dynamic Security to block cheaper third-party ink and toner, that one setting prevents any cartridge other than HP's and another permanently ties each cartridge to the first printer, and that it is enforced through firmware updates.
Slide headed 'HP Dynamic Security' on a dark background, covering models where Dynamic Security can be turned off, firmware downgrades that risk bricking the printer, HP Instant Ink, and class-action lawsuits, with the highlighted line 'A printer that only obeys HP is a warning about every device you buy, because the same playbook is spreading to everything.'

Originally published as an Instagram carousel on Jul 13, 2026: See Instagram post.

Sources

This entry condenses HP Dynamic Security on consumerrights.wiki.

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