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Having just printed the family's Christmas letter, I can certainly attest the high price of ink cartridges, AND the 'early reporting' of low ink. My habit's been to print until the paper doesn't look right anymore... you just can't trust the indicator!A Boston man has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing hardware maker HP and office supply retailer Staples of colluding to inflate the price of printer ink cartridges in violation of federal antitrust law. According to the suit, HP allegedly paid Staples $100 million to refrain from selling inexpensive third-party ink cartridges, although the suit doesn't make it clear how plaintiff Ranjit Bedi arrived at that figure.
For most printer companies, ink is the bread and butter of their business. The price of ink for HP ink-jet printers can be as much as $8,000 per gallon, a figure that makes gas-pump price gouging look tame. HP is currently the dominant company in the printing market, and a considerable portion of the company's profits come from ink.
The printer makers have been waging an all-out war against third-party vendors that sell replacement cartridges at a fraction of the price. The tactics employed by the printer makers to maintain monopoly control over ink distribution for their printing products have become increasingly aggressive...
Adding insult to injury, most printers are lying, filthy ink thieves, according to a recent study, misreporting that they are low on ink when they are not.
(HT: Instapundit)
2 comments:
Now, about that paperless society that was envisioned in the 90s....
In some ways, we've made progress -- I do most of my bill paying, etc, online... far fewer stamps and paper in the mail.
Note: that's private sector stuff. If I could shrink the size of government ("fill this out in quintiplicate, please"), maybe we'd make even more progress!
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