Consumers Ready to Battle Over Ink

An article posted on the KansasCity.com website from the Kansas City Star newspaper, asserts that a confrontation is coming between regulators and print cartridge makers over product labeling. The reporter cites an unnamed study that revealed how much consumers could save if more information was disclosed about true cost of printer ownership.

According to the reporter, ink cartridges do not currently fall under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, so it is not required of the manufacturer to list exactly how much ink a cartridge contains. This galls consumer advocates because even the page estimates are sometimes not entirely accurate and the cost to produce these cartridges is very low on the manufacturer side.

This battle has attracted the attention of the National Conference of Weights and Measures who will be discussing the matter at a meeting in late January. The group is made up of weights and measures officials from each state. The issue was originally brought to the floor by Max Gray, the chief of the Florida Bureau of Weights and Measures.

Lexmark, Inc. has already stated publicly through a letter that they will be contesting the accusations. They feel as though each of their cartridges is a “micro-machine” which uses different amounts of ink based on print quality and other factors. Lexmark also asserts that the ink accounts only a fraction of the cost of the cartridge. An attorney for Lexmark, Charles Kratzer says, “Treating these sophisticated machines as though they were mere containers for ink is inappropriate.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has also seen fit to weigh in on this issue. They help to oversee weights and measures law and as such feel that a statement of “‘liquid measure’” is needed to be in full compliance with the law.

Critics of the ink manufacturers are also quick to point out that the industry allows up to a 10% deviation in page yield listed on a box and the actual yield of that cartridge. That information is not verified by the state weights and measures officials because of the sheer volume of printer models on the market today.

The cartridge manufacturers rebut that page counts are as accurate as they possibly can be based on the tests run on each cartridge. Other factors like frequency of printing and type of printing need to be accounted for in the total page yield.

The final claim of critics is that manufacturers have room to put more ink in each cartridge. According to an ink reseller in Florida, the sponge that is placed into each cartridge takes up room that could be used for larger ink volume.

Keep checking back with Castle Ink for updates as the battle rages on.