EU tells HP et al to scrap inkjet 'clever chips'

[vailr]

The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28653.html

Prices of printer cartridges look set to drop thanks to a new EU law that will ban printer firms from forcing consumers to buy their own-brand refills.

 

[Chadder007]

w00t!! Hopefully no more freakin' 40 dollar ink cartridges for a 40 dollar printer.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Good. I wish the US would come with some law like that.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Chadder007
w00t!! Hopefully no more freakin' 40 dollar ink cartridges for a 40 dollar printer.

Yeah, I'd rather pay $60 on a printer and $15 on cartridges, like the good ol' days.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

I'd rather pay $10 on a Epson printer and $10 on the aftermarket ink.

 

[mrman3k]

Well my guess is that they will respond by upping printer prices to normal levels and lowering ink prices.

By the way, buy HP products!

 

[RockyMaivia]

Any other printer makers besides HP use these 'clever chips?'

 

[Lonyo]

I'd rather spend $40 on a printer, then when it runs out of ink, $40 on a printer and sell the old one on ebay, rather thna $40 on ink every time 🙂

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Chadder007
w00t!! Hopefully no more freakin' 40 dollar ink cartridges for a 40 dollar printer.

Heck, a new Lexmark printer (don't remember the model#) was at Walmart under $30 - cheaper to buy a whole new printer than an ink cartridge!

I wonder if the EU will also go after Epson - they started incorporating chips on their ink tanks. Epson says it's to provide better ink level monitoring. Of course, if you don't want "better ink level monitoring", and remove the chip, the printer says that there's no ink tank, and it won't work. Fortunately, chip reprogrammers were on the market after the printer in question (777) came out. Too bad that the mechanism to read the chip was defective - the wires caught on the cartridge as I was removing it, severely bending the pins. Printer was useless then. No more "new" Epsons for me until they do something about those damn chips.

 

[Davegod]

Many ink carts could be pulled open and simply refilled, i gather a core reason for actually ruling on this was, well basically they decided that it was taking the piss when some manufacturers tried to make the chips stop the cartreges even from being refilled. This should allow competition on making ink carts, aswell as proper competition on actual printers since they cant sell at silly prices then charge monpoly premium on ink.