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http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/inkjet-printers/1282069/lexmark-firmware-update-blocks-third-party-carts
UK: LEXMARK UPDATES BLOCK REMANUFACTURED CARTRIDGES
The
Office of Fair Trading and the Trading Standards Institute have
confirmed they are investigating complaints that printer manufacturer
Lexmark has rendered its customers’ printers useless with a firmware
upgrade that locks out third-party and refilled cartridges.Previously,
Lexmark printers have worked with cartridges provided by third-party
manufacturers and recycling services that refill expired cartridges and
re-sell them at a significant discount. A recent upgrade, which promised
to improve users’ printers, has removed this support – locking users in
to using only original Lexmark cartridges.One complainant,
Gerry Palmer, describes the change as a “hidden trap” and explains that
“as only three of the cartridges in my Lexmark 405 Interpret are Lexmark
I can no longer use my printer.”This is an anti-competitive restrictive
practice and should be reversed”, Palmer explains – which has prompted
his complaint to the Office of Fair Trading, after discovering that the
firmware upgrade is irreversible and his printer thus unusable unless he
replaces the non-official ink cartridges.With printer manufacturers
making much of their profit from the sales of ink cartridges rather than
printers – known as the ‘razor blade’ sales model, after the similar
approach of the replaceable-head razor market – this isn’t the first
time that a company has tried to restrict use of third-party compatible
cartridges. However, the fact that Lexmark has fundamentally changed the
functionality of users’ existing printers to their detriment may land
the company in hot water with the authorities.At the time of writing,
Lexmark was unable to comment on the complaints.
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