*NEWS*KYOCERA’s VICTORY OVER HP PRINTERS

[Anonymous]

Kyocera achieves victory over ASA HP complaint
HP prevented from making misleading campaigns in future
Kyocera
has triumphed with regard to its reporting of HP to the Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA) for making misleading claims about one of it
printers in an advertisement.

In July, Kyocera lodged an
official complaint with the ASA following the publishing of an
advertisement in CRN, and other trade publications, which claimed that
customers buying the HP Colour LaserJet CP3505 printer would only have
to replace toner throughout the printer’s life “and nothing else”.The
advert went on to state that “No drum, maintenance, fuser, cleaning or
transfer kits” were required.Kyocera challenged these claims on the
basis that HP toner cartridges, which must be replaced each time the
toner runs out, contain drums which are therefore also replaced
regularly.The ASA said in a statement: “Since our last letter, we have
received a response from HP. They have given us their assurance that
they will remove the references to “replacement toner” and “no drum”
from the ad and will not make similar claims about individual elements
of the print cartridges in future ads; they will also make clear that
it is the print cartridges that will need replacing.””Because we
understand the marketing will now be amended in line with The British
Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, we intend to
close the case informally,” said the ASA.

Kyocera’s general
manager, Ian Joslin, said: “We’re delighted that HP has acknowledged
that its ads were misleading and volunteered to amend them. People tend
to believe the claims of blue-chip brands without question and there’s
already enough uncertainty around the ongoing costs of running laser
printers so it’s not helpful for HP to add to it by making claims which
cannot be substantiated. We’re firmly committed to making it easier for
printer users to compare the relative costs of using different printers
so we felt compelled to challenge the validity of HP’s claims.””To
claim on the one hand that users need not replace multiple parts during
the life of the printer, and then to state on its cartridge packaging
that 70% of the print engine is contained within the cartridges just
doesn’t add up. Customers in any doubt as to the number of parts
replaced each time an ink cartridge runs out should take a look at the
number of individual parts a cartridge contains – around 60. Compare
this to the five components in a Kyocera toner cassette and it’s easy
to see which company really offers “toner-only” technology,” he added.

[Author]

September 18, 2007 at 2:19 PM