The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) have passed on a complaint to their compliance team following adjudication in favour with the complaint made by the United Kingdom Cartridge Remanufacturers Association (UKCRA) relating to Tanark Manufacturing, a UK manufacturer.
The claim refers to a logo featured on an email listing remanufactured toners and a website ad stating “REMANUFACTURED IN THE UK”, although the company in question is refusing to remove the contentious ad.
A mystery shopper exercise from a source to The Recycler recently purchased two cartridges from the company in question, one undeniably being a clone, the other remanufactured. Neither product nor the invoice gave any indication of being remanufactured in the UK.
The advert was found to breech CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 of Misleading advertising and 3.7, Substantiation. The ASA’s action has determined “the ad must not appear in its current form again”.
Tanark responded by stating that 60 percent of it products are remanufactured, and cites that no company could remanufacture 100 percent of their products. The ASA concluded that readers of the email and website would infer that the company remanufacture all of their products and concluded the ad was misleading.
Laura Heywood, Director of Kleen Strike and Secretary of UKCRA, told The Recycler about how she and Vincent van Dijk, Secretary General of ETIRA contacted the Managing Director of the company, in late March following testing a newbuild clone and concluded it was imported.
Tanark claimed the misleading nature of the claim was unintentional but refused to remove the signage.
Heywood states that newbuild clones are an increasing area of contention, with the risk of contravening foreign patent laws.
The ASA was subsequently approached in June, where she was informed of their “intention to deal with [her] complaint in a formal capacity” at the end of July and had thus agreed that the ad breeched CAP code.
However the company is currently refusing to remove the ad, forcing the ASA to pass the case onto their compliance team, who believe the company will request an independent review of the decision.
UKCRA have previously targeted HP with regards to negative advertising. In a similar case earlier in the year, the Australian court found Tonnex International guilty of contravening the Trade Practises Act by promoting its products as 100 percent genuine.