N.J. Senate approves bill to require printer and ink cartridge manufacturers show costs

Just another case of Government sticking their head in something that they shouldn't be as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I use an inkjet printer at my home office.  I'm not concerned with the cost per page because I don't print that much.

Thus I guess the labels will state something like "at 5% coverage in line with our test document your average per page cost will be .XXX", however the real culprit with inkjet printers is the purging of the ink when the printers cycle on.  Will any end user really have a clue what 5% coverage is? I think not.  Maybe they need to include a manual with every cartridge that shows what 5%, 10% and 20% coverage documents look like right?

These butt heads should worry more about how to generate new revenue streams for the state and reduce the cost of government. BUttheads!

Here's a copy of the bill that the Governor will be asked to sign. Guess that means if I sell a used laser printer we'll have to conform. 

Um......no printer manufacturer that I know of posts the cost per page on the box.  Doubt any manufacturer will add this for the sake of one of the tiniest states in the country.  The law of unintended consequences tells me this may push sales out of the state.

If it becomes law, I would imagine that more states may adopt something like this.   But, I guess it will come down to "who will enforce the law". 

$10,000 is a pretty hefty fine one ink cartridge or one printer not having the cost per page on the packaging.

There is very little information on this topic in the news, so thank you for posting this. I am wondering if anyone has any updates. If so, can you please share?

This is really going to impact our business if it goes through.

I just called my State Senator, of course no one was available. I'm suppose to get a call back. I'm sure many bills are presented each year that do not get signed by the Governor.  I will write an email to the Governor, but suggest the likes of HP, Epson, Canon, Xerox, Lexmark, Ricoh, Brother need to take a Corporate stance if they haven't done so already.

The bill is on the Governors desk to be signed or not signed.  He has until January 24th to sign or I guess it's a no go.  You can call or email the Governors office to voice opinions. I was going to and then drew back some, and will send an email response.

Art

Thanks for the update. I'll be certain to offer you additional details from my side too.

So if it's up to the manufacturer to put this info on there how can the store set their own price? Also the other problem will be the same problem we have where everything is based on a set coverage rate that is normally lower than what people actually print. 

I bet the price Ricoh puts on there will be more that what customers are paying per page on contract. 

I am guessing the dope that put out this one got ripped off on a toner cartridge or something. 

msaeger:

this potential bill is for printers and not copiers. Any printer that is sold in NJ must have the cost per page stated on the box.  So, this is the cost per page of the toner or ink cartridge. Ink or laser cartridges sold in NJ must also have the cost per page clearly marked on the packaging. 

I sell probably about 15-20 printers per year and have no clue on how many cartridges we sell.  We do sell and ink based wide format system and I wonder if those inkjet cartridges come into play.  Also what about all of those color plotters and grand format color systems?

 Art,

When was the last time you sold a copier that was not also printer?  The bill doesn't appear to differentiate between a single function printer and a multifunction printer.  The way it defines a printer would probably also include MFPs.  It does appear that the bill only applies to systems that use ink, so laser devices could be exempt.

Thank you txeagle24. This was my initial reaction.

Also, does anyone get the expense of the manufactures having to do this in Europe, China or Japan just for ink specifically to be sold in NJ?! It's just crazy. Unfortunally, the customer will pay more. It benefits no one! 

By the way, I have tried. No response from the manufacturers - yet.

TX

 1.    As used in P.L.    , c.     (C.    ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):

     "Printer" means an output device that produces a paper copy of alphanumeric or graphic data.

     "Ink cartridge" means a replaceable module containing ink that is designed to be inserted into a printer.

Here's my take, just because we call it toner does not mean that the general term can be "ink".  There is liquid and dry ink however the bill just states ink.  I believe the same that the bill was created for liquid ink, however use of "ink" could refer to dry ink as well.   After all "a replaceable module containing ink"  can refer to most of our laser cartridges.  Thus this is what happens when you get a group of people together that have no clue about the industry.  

The key to this may be the  "ISO/IEC 24711:2007 and ISO/IEC 19752:2007 standards for black text printing.", however I haven't read these yet.  One concern is that they are from 2007?

Art

As always, thank you.