A U.S. man sued office-products retailer Staples and printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard in federal court, charging they broke antitrust laws in collaborating on the sale of replacement ink-jet printer cartridges.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Ranjit Bedi charged that the two companies had reached "an illegal agreement between competitors to stop competing" when HP paid Staples, the biggest U.S. specialty retailer of office supplies, "market development funds" to stop selling non-HP-branded ink-jet printer cartridges for HP printers.

The suit contends that HP paid Staples more than $100 million to <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2236230,00.asp?kc=EWKNLEDP121907D">stop selling lower-priced printer cartridges for HP printers.</A> The suit does not make clear how Bedi, of Pacific Palisades, California, determined the $100 million number.