Lawsuit targets Amazon for failing to stop deceptive ink cartridge claims

A printer cartridge recycler is suing Amazon in federal court in California, alleging that the online retailer is ignoring deceptive green marketing around off-brand cartridges and the resulting plastic pollution from hundreds of millions of cartridges sold in the U.S. each year.

Planet Green Cartridges Inc.'s central complaint is economic — that the U.S. cartridge remanufacturing sector is being decimated by deceptive marketing on mostly imported inkjet cartridges on Amazon's website, with sellers falsely claiming the cartridges are made from recycled and remanufactured components.

But Chatsworth, Calif.-based Planet Green also alleges in the Aug. 14 lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that by not policing the greenwashing, Amazon contributes to consumers having few effective reuse and recycling options, which increases plastic pollution.

It said an estimated 375 million printer cartridges wind up in U.S. landfills each year.

An Amazon spokesman said the company would not comment on pending litigation.

In a statement, Plant Green CEO Sean Levi said the plastic pollution problems from the cartridges is at odds with the mission of the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion philanthropy formed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to fight climate change and preserve nature.

"Given Amazon's professed sustainability mission and Jeff Bezos' Earth Fund, one would expect Amazon to actively contribute to the solution, rather than perpetuate a substantial environmental challenge," Levi said. "I call on Jeff Bezos to lead the way and help bring back the printer cartridge remanufacturing industry which is the only solution for reducing printer cartridge plastic waste that is causing a detrimental effect on the environment."

The lawsuit, which also names companies selling the cartridges on Amazon, seeks an end to what it says are false marketing claims that the cartridges are made from remanufactured components when they're in fact newly made, and it wants "corrective advertising" to consumers.

It also seeks $500 million in damages from Amazon, which it said also markets and sells the illicit clone cartridges directly through its Amazon Warehouse Program.

Planet Green said in the lawsuit that the U.S. remanufacturing industry grew from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, becoming a $7 billion a year industry with its own trade publications and expos, creating lower-cost options for consumers and keeping millions of cartridges out of landfills.

But that's changed markedly in the last decade with the growth of e-commerce, said Eric Sherman, company's marketing director.

The industry's main trade show closed in 2014, and Planet Green is one of the last remaining printer ink cartridge remanufacturers in the U.S., the lawsuit said.

"Now the U.S. remanufacturing industry is on the verge of extinction," Planet Green said in the filing. "The anti-competitive behavior of [the] defendants is the driving force behind the proliferation of counterfeit remanufactured ink cartridges saturating the U.S. market, deceiving consumers, undercutting legitimate remanufacturers, and leaving the recycle stream with an overwhelming amount of plastic waste."

Planet Green, which started in 1999, collects used, brand name printer cartridge cores from schools, businesses and consumers, fills them with ink, tests for quality and sells them.

It told the court it purchased many samples of the clone cartridges and tested them, finding that they falsely claimed to be remanufactured from brand name cartridges but were instead newly made with different electronic circuitry, printer nozzles and designs.

Planet Green also said some remanufactured cartridges carry recyclability claims that violate the Federal Trade Commission's Green Guides.

It said it submitted details of sales practices by 100 makers of the clone cartridges to Amazon on several occasions since June 2022, including hand delivering evidence to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, through a mutual contact, on Nov. 24.

While Amazon declined to comment, Planet Green said the online retailer has argued it's not responsible for the marketing claims of sellers and has relied on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to argue that it is immune from liability from content provided by third parties on its platform.

But Planet Green said the remanufactured printer ink category on Amazon is "overrun" by sellers making false claims that violate federal laws prohibiting deceptive marketing on environmental issues.

"Amazon has provided nothing more than lip service, claiming, without action, that Amazon will enforce its rules and investigate," the complaint said. "The reason for the tremendous loss of an entire United States printer cartridge remanufacturing industry and plaintiff's damages, is due to Amazon's direct participation in the unlawful practices detailed in this complaint."