Call on ETIRA to Reveal More About Non-compliant Cartridges

On November 28, the European Toner and Inkjet Remanufacturers Association (ETIRA) issued a crucial warning.

The association claims most of the new-built compatible cartridges in Europe are non-compliant and blatantly illegal. Over a five-month investigation, ETIRA acquired about 50 cartridges from a range of stockists and found that 75% of these new-built products failed to meet EU standards. Only 8% complied.

We all know these products came from China. And, I am sure everyone reading this would agree that compliance is non-negotiable, and the “dodgy” cheap products must be identified and eliminated to maintain the integrity of our industry.

But … the ETIRA report leaves many unanswered questions:

• If 75% were non-compliant and 8% compliant, what about the remaining 17%?
• How many suppliers were tested? Were the cartridges sourced from 50 different suppliers, or fewer? If so, how many?
• With millions of cartridges entering Europe from China, were these 50 samples representative of the entire market?
• Was there a qualified panel that reviewed and validated the conclusions?

Transparency is critical in studies like this, so I call on ETIRA’s Secretary General, Vincent van Dijk (pictured), and President Javier Martinez to share more details about their methodology. How was the sample selected? What testing processes were used? And, how were the results analyzed?

More importantly, what will ETIRA do with these findings? Will this damning information be reported to European authorities?

After all, we all want our industry to be at its best, don’t we?

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