In the last few years the printer manufacturing companies
like Xerox, Cannon and Lexmark have been struggling against the prospering
illegal distribution network of counterfeit toner cartridges including
countries such as United States. A counterfeit toner cartridge looks like a
toner cartridges similar to Xerox toners
, Cannon toners and Lexmark toners and will even have logos and will come
in packages resembling those coming from big brands, leading the consumer
believe that he is buying an actual genuine OEM toner cartridge. However in
reality the toner are manufactured by unknown, unauthorized manufacturers.
Since these unauthorized manufacturers don’t operate under any legal framework,
they do not comply with the today’s printing compliance standards. Use of this
unauthorized and untested toner can lead to serious damage to your printers.
They are not going to last as long as a genuine printer toners and will not
print as clear as the genuine printer toners would. However genuine Xerox toners , Cannon toners and Lexmark toners will deliver unparallel printing quality.
In the year 2004, Xerox Company in assistance with custom
officials of several countries was able to seize more than 7,200 counterfeit
toner cartridges that claimed to be the genuine Xerox toners. The estimated value of seize then was worth around
1.3million. Hundreds and thousands of counterfeit products worth over millions
of dollars are confiscated each year. This is a problem that has plagued the
entire printing industry. Users need to be very vigilant when buying product to
receive genuine Xerox toners since
they have paid for it.
Imaging Supplies Coalition is a non profit trade association
comprising of members from original equipment manufacturers. The members of ISC
team comprise of members from Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Xerox, Lexmark etc. So
far Lexmark has been successful in identifying and thousands of counterfeit Lexmark toners and has filed a case
against a New York based company named Finetone. The company, Finetone was
allegedly importing counterfeit Lexmark
toners and distributing counterfeit Lexmark
toners. The packaging contained
unauthorized trademark usage of Lexmark and carried unauthorized reproduction.
In the year 2005, Canon conducted a massive civil raid on US
distributors alleged to be involved in the sale of sale of counterfeit Canon toners. Canon was successful in
seizing thousands of counterfeit Canon
toners worth millions of dollars. Distributors have since agreed to not to
sell counterfeit Canon toners. They
have also ended up paying damages to Canon on number of accounts of violations.
Canon encourages its customers to buy only genuine Canon toners from authorized distributors and suppliers.
HP on the other hand has taken several initiatives in this
direction and taken the battle to the web. It has also released several
informative and entertaining videos to educate consumers about counterfeit HP toner cartridges. During the year
2005 through 2008, HP has conducted around 4,620 investigations in over 55
countries. This resulted in 3,528 enforcement actions by law enforcement
officers. More than $795 million worth of counterfeit HP products has been seized. This includes $8 million worth of
counterfeit HP toner cartridges.