Epson ink cartridge controversy

Computer printer manufacturers including Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Canon and Lexmark have long adopted the razor and blades business model, where they will retail their printers at very low cost or at a loss, in order to acquire new customers who will eventually purchase expensive consumables (such as cartridges, paper and other replacement parts) for their products, where most profits can be made.

In recent years, Epson has been accused of manufacturing expensive consumables for their printers. It is also said that the company is forcing customers to purchase replacement ink cartridges before they are truly spent by using 'intelligence chips' to count how many pages have been printed in order to estimate the remaining ink, without actually monitoring the true ink levels.

Dutch Consumer Association boycott

In July 2003, the Dutch Consumer Association advised its 640,000 members to boycott Epson ink jet printers. The Netherlands-based organization alleged that Epson customers were unfairly charged for ink they could never use. Later that month however, the group retracted its call for a nationwide boycott of Epson products and issued a statement conceding that residual ink left in Epson cartridges is necessary for the printers to function properly. (PC World Friday, October 24 2003). [ [http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113112,00.asp PC World - Epson Faces Consumer Suits ] ]

Epson leaves ink in the cartridges (and in fact have done so ever since they developed the piezo-electric head) due to the way the capping mechanism works. If the capping mechanism dries out, then the heads risk getting clogged, and thus an expensive repair will be necessary. The reason that the Dutch Consumer Association retracted their statement was because it was pointed out that Epson actually states how many pages (at usually a 5% coverage of an A4 sheet of paper) each cartridge can print.Fact|date=August 2007

Nonetheless, Epson America, Inc. has decided to settle a class action lawsuit brought before the Los Angeles Superior Court. It does not admit guilt, but they have agreed to refund $45 to anyone who purchased an Epson InkJet Printer after 8 April 1999 (at least $20 of which must be used at Epson's E-Store). [ [http://www.epsonsettlement.com/ In re Epson Ink Cartridge Cases ] ]

Generic cartridge manufacturers

Epson for a long time has been trying to stop generic cartridge manufacturers from producing Epson compatible products that infringe on Epson patents. During the last six years, Epson has filed lawsuits to stop the production and sale of these infringing ink cartridges in the US and European Markets. According to IDG News ServiceFact|date=August 2007, Epson filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) in February, 2006, against 24 companies that manufacture, import, or distribute Epson-compatible ink cartridges for sale in the U.S. On March 30 2007, ITC judge Paul Luckern issued an initial determination that the ink cartridges in question do infringe upon Epson's patents.Fact|date=August 2007 The judge also recommended the companies and others are barred from importing and selling the cartridges in the US, Epson said.Fact|date=August 2007

Ink cost analysis

* Epson "78" ink cartridges contain 7.4ml of ink per cartridge. The "78" ink cartridges retail for $14.99 for each color and $17.99 for the black.
* The T048X series "guitar" ink cartridges for the older "R" series consumer Epson printers contain 13ml of ink in each cartridge. The "guitar" inks retail for $12.99 for each color and $17.99 for the black.
* The "high capacity 77" color inks available online for the new Claria "R" series of Epson printers contain 11.1ml of ink per cartridge for a MSRP of $19.99 for each cartridge. Thus the "high capacity" inks for the Claria Epson printers have a much higher cost per ml ($1.00 per ml for color on the "guitar" inks vs $1.80 per ml for the "high capacity" 77 cartridges and $2.03 per ml for the standard 78 ink cartridges. Thus the new "Claria" inks are 105% more expensive for the 78 cartridges and 80% more expensive for the 77 ink cartridges) This cost per ml compares the cost of color ink cartridges. ("Out of thin air, crystal ball, Ouija board?", DP Review Online Forums. December 27 2006). [ [http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=21419729 Out of thin air,crystal ball,ouija board?: Printers and Printing Forum: Digital Photography Review ] ] Fact|date=August 2007

The cost difference black cartridges is: $1.38 per ml for the "guitar" cartridges, $2.43 for the "78" inks, and $1.80 for the high capacity "77" ink cartridges. ("It Possibly Doesn't Use More Ink?", DP Review Online Forums. December 25 2006) [ [http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=21404035 It possibly doesn't use more ink?: Printers and Printing Forum: Digital Photography Review ] ] Fact|date=August 2007

On August 15 2007 Epson released several new DURABrite printers. These new machines are more expensive to operate than the previous lines DuraBrite Ultra lines (C88+/CX4200/CX4800 etc). Epson's CX4400 uses the "88" cartridges exclusively. [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Specs&oid=63070161&category=Products Epson Stylus CX4400, Specifications - Product Information - Epson America, Inc ] ] The CX7400 comes with 88 ink cartridges, but can accept the 68/69 ink cartridges. [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Specs&oid=63069503&category=Products Epson Stylus CX7400, Specifications - Product Information - Epson America, Inc ] ] The CX8400 and CX9400FAX comes with the 69 ink cartridges and can use the 68 "high capacity" ink cartridges. [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Specs&oid=63070382&category=Products Epson Stylus CX9400Fax, Specifications - Product Information - Epson America, Inc ] ] [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Specs&oid=63069506&category=Products Epson Stylus CX8400, Specifications - Product Information - Epson America, Inc ] ] The C120 inkjet model uses two 69 or 68 blacks and uses 68 color ink cartridges.

The cost for Epson 68 ink cartridges are $19.99 for each black (MSRP from Epson's USA website [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/ProductQuickSpec.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63071040 Epson 68 Price Page] ] ). The 69 ink cartridges are $16.99 for the black and $12.34 for each color. The 69 cartridges provide 245 pages in black/350 pages for color [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Landing/InkYieldISO3.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes Ink Cartridge Yields for Epson Stylus CX5000, CX6000 - Epson America, Inc ] ] , while the 68 provides 375 pages in black, according to ISO standards testing. Epson does not make any claims about the page yield of the high capacity 68 color ink cartridges. [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Landing/InkYieldISO3.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes Ink Cartridge Yields for Epson Stylus CX5000, CX6000 - Epson America, Inc ] ] Comparing this with the previous line of Epson printers that used the T06xx cartridges, we can see that the black provides 400 pages and the colors provide about 600 pages using ISO testing. [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Landing/InkYieldDbu.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes Epson America, Inc. - Ink Cartridge Yields ] ] Thus the newer line of Epson DURABrites cost per page (ink only) is: 5.3 cents/page for 68 black (19.99 cartridge/375 pages claimed), 6.9 cents/page for 69 black (16.99 cartridge/245 pages), and 3.5 cents/page for each 69 color cartridge (12.34/350 pages). Comparing this to the "Chair" T06XX cartridges used on the previous DURABrite line, we can see that the cost per page is indeed higher. The costs for the "chair" cartridges are: 4.9 cents/page for black (19.99/400 pages) and 2.3 cents/page for each color (13.99/600 pages). The "68" based Epson black ink is thus are 35% more expensive in black, and the 69 black is 65% more expensive to operate than the "T06XX chair" cartridges. All prices listed are current sale prices on Epson inks from Epson America's websiteFact|date=February 2008 as of 26 February 2007.

Epson currently does not make any claims for the capacity of the 88 ink cartridges, but since those cartridges are used on the lowest end Epson printers, it can be assumed that the cost per page is higher than the 69 inks (greater than 8.1 cents/page).Fact|date=August 2007 Historically less expensive printers have more expensive ink. Fact|date=November 2007

Some claim Epson does not make accessing ink yield information easy to find on their website. The ink cartridge pages no longer include information on yields either through Epson's online store. [ [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/ProductQuickSpec.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63071040&category= Epson High-Capacity Black Ink Cartridge, Overview - Product Information - Epson America, Inc ] ] and only vaguely guides users to the ink cartridge info page at [http://www.epson.com/cartridgeinfo http://www.epson.com/cartridgeinfo] . However if you access the specifications of the printer a direct link is provided to ink yields and how Epson arrived at those figures.(For example on [http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Landing/InkYieldISO7.jsp this page)] [Ink Cartridge Yields for Epson Stylus CX7400, CX7450]

In October 2007, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) ruled in favor of the Seiko Epson in a patent infringement case [ [http://www.usitc.gov/secretary/fed_reg_notices/337/Inv._No._337-TA-565..1192825685.pdf Inv. No. 337-TA-565] Notice of Final Determination, In the Matter of Certain Ink Cartridges and Components Thereof, USITC] [ [http://www.therecycler.com/viewarticle.asp?article=1446 ITC finds in favour of Epson] ] that the company had brought against multiple third party manufacturers of compatible Epson cartridges. The case, filed in March 2007, named several manufacturers located in China, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea, and the United States, claiming their compatible products infringed on Epson's ink cartridge patents. Though the Commission did not rule in complete favor of Epson's assertions, it did rule that there were 23 counts of patent infringement. Nevertheless, the USITC did not ban all compatible ink cartridge for Epson printers, and there are some companies such as Media Sciences International who still manufacture and distribute compatible cartridges that comply with USITC guidelines.

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