Toner Cartridges And Corporate Conflicts
In the world of printers and ink nothing is more controversial than the incredibly high prices of toner cartridges on the marketplace today. In some cases consumers can expect to spend many more times the value of a printer on its toner cartridges every year, leading to widespread consumer disgruntlement aimed at the printing industry that has become the driving force behind a new breed of generic printing supplies for a fraction of the price of brand name products. The conflict between the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and generic “compatible” consumables has become a widespread struggle that has found its way into blog posts and court rooms all over the globe.
The producers of brand name inks and toner cartridges have been inflating the prices of their consumable goods for years now. In fact the prices have risen high enough that it is now a common consumer tactic to buy a new printer for a personal computer and then discard the whole package once the original cartridge runs out and simply buy another one. This is particularly common with cheap laser printers. Additionally new printers are designed to only accept refill cartridges from the same company that manufactured it, meaning that consumers are left with limited options and no ability to shop around for better prices on their toner cartridges.
The consumer backlash against these policies has spawned the rise of generic “compatible” toner cartridges for personal printers. These cartridges are manufactured by third party companies to fit the specifications of several different brands of printers and are sold at a much less expensive rate than OEM cartridges — sometimes as low as only 30% of the cost of a brand name cartridge. However don’t get too excited yet: as part of an effort to push back against these cheaper generic variants many OEMs are suing these new competitors for patent infringement for bypassing their safeguards, and have begun waging a public relations war to convince consumers that compatible cartridges are not only lower quality, but can even damage your printer (and many warranties are voided as soon as you use a generic cartridge). Unfortunately for the OEMs these tactics have not only failed to stem the rise of compatible cartridges, but despite their efforts these generic variants now control between 10-15% of the market. It will be interesting to see what new developments the future will bring to this conflict.