A printer prints, and to do that, one needs ink cartridges. These cartridges can run out of ink and need refilling from time to time. Sounds fairly undramatic right? Far from that, actually, as time and again, printer makers like HP and Canon have found themselves in the middle of massive controversies with accusations of blocking the use of third-party cartridges.
For example, back in 2016, HP supposedly blocked its printers with non-HP cartridges with pre-programmed error, though it changed its stance soon enough, at least for the time being, after the media like Neowin started reporting on it.
Similarly, in 2021, Canon was struck with a lawsuit with allegations that the company's all-in-one printers were disabling scanning too when the cartridges ran out of ink.
The use of third-party non-official accessories had not been an issue for Brother but recent reports have suggested that things are changing for the worse.
Recent user complaints, like from Reddit user 20Factorial, indicated that firmware update W1.56 seemingly bricked the automatic color registration feature on the MFC-L3750CDW Color Laser Printer. And a Brother customer service agent apparently even confirmed that “the printer is non-functional without genuine toner.”
Some of the other users too have had similar experiences. Brother though has denied any of these allegations stating that these are "false claims" and that it does not "intentionally degrade print quality based on whether a Brother Genuine or non-genuine ink/ toner cartridge is used".
In a statement to Ars Technica, Brother said:
We are aware of the recent false claims suggesting that a Brother firmware update may have restricted the use of third-party ink cartridges. Please be assured that Brother firmware updates do not block the use of third-party ink in our machines.
Brother printers do not intentionally degrade print quality based on whether a Brother Genuine or non-genuine ink/ toner cartridge is used. Brother cannot verify the quality of printing that will result when using a third-party compatible with a Brother printer.
[We are] actively addressing the source of these false claims to ensure accurate information is available to our customers.
Brother does make a fair point that it can not guarantee the quality of non-Brother accessories. It is also entirely possible that the firmware is indeed causing such issues but possibly unintentionally. In that case, the company will have to investigate firmware quality control before pushing them out.
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