U.S.New Jersey Assemblyman takes on the Oem's With New Bill

[Anonymous]

New Jersey Assemblyman takes on the Oem’s With New Bill

I’m sitting here in the state Assembly chambers awaiting what should be a boring, predictable and entirely pointless debate about same-sex marriage.

It’s all posturing. The governor has said he will veto the bill.

Meanwhile Assemblyman Gary Chiusano just walked by and he told me about a bill he’s sponsoring that is of real import to everyone who owns a computer.

The bill would require the sellers of ink cartridges to state how many pages the cartridge in question can print.

"Some of these cartridges only print 200 pages," Chiusano told me.

I hadn’t known it was that bad. For 200 pages they charge $25?

The Republican from Sparta went on to inform me that there’s so little ink in some of the damn things that the cost exceeds the ink’s weight in gold.

So he’s pushing for truth in labeling. I’m all for it. If these guys can sell ink at that price, they can use a little bit of it to tell me how much I’m getting.
Here’s the statement on the bill:

The Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 1230.

This bill makes it an unlawful practice to sell a printer without information indicating the average cost per 1,000 printed pages for black text and, if applicable, color printing. It is also an unlawful practice, under the bill, to sell an ink cartridge without information indicating the ink cartridge’s yield. This information would have to be included on the printer’s or ink cartridge’s packaging, or on a conspicuously attached label or tag.

    The bill specifies that the average cost per page is to be calculated by dividing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the printer’s cartridges by their yield. Yield is to be determined using standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization.

    A violation of this bill is an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud Act which is punishable by a monetary penalty of not more than $10,000 for a first offense and not more than $20,000 for any subsequent offense. In addition, a violation can result in cease and desist orders issued by the Attorney General, the assessment of punitive damages, and the awarding of treble damages and costs to the injured party.

    This bill was pre-filed for introduction in the 2012-2013 session pending technical review. As reported, the bill includes the changes required by technical review, which has been performed..

[Author]

February 20, 2012 at 8:19 AM