Epson’s Expression Home XP 100
Smarthouse suggests Australian authorities investigate OEMs over inkjet price markups.
Following reports by British newspapers the Guardian and the Daily Mail, Australian technology news site Smarthouse has published a piece decrying the extortionate pricing of inkjet cartridges and the shrinking of such consumables by the OEM.
Noting that in Australia “printer manufacturers are going out of their way to make it difficult to reuse their cartridges”, the site adds that “this has not gone unnoticed” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which told Smarthouse such behaviour could “constitute restrictive trading”.
The site contends that OEMs are “ripping [consumers] off blind”, using the example of the Epson Expression Home XP-100 printer, which costs AU$59 ($60/€46) despite a complete replacement set of cartridges will cost up to AU$247 ($253/€194). It adds that “a single cartridge […] costs less than a dollar to manufacture”, meaning that for a four millilitre cartridge people would be paying an equivalent of AU$4,000 ($4,108/€3,155) a litre.
Using the analogy that the barriers to third party ink are similar to “Ford or General Motors designing cars to only take their components or tyres”, Smarthouse also adds references to the Daily Mail’s findings that the amount of ink has shrunk in inkjets throughout the past few years, and quotes The Recycler’s David Connett and UKCRA and Promax’s Chris Brooks, who were both interviewed by the British newspapers for their own reports on the situation.