By Laszlo Czinege, General Manager, Printing & Personal Systems, HP Saudi Arabia
As global trade and growing access to the internet make the world a more connected place, customers are becoming more wary and are questioning deals which seem “too good to be true” and could suggest that the product in question isn’t genuine. However, when it comes to the global trade in counterfeit goods, there is always more work to be done. Businesses and consumers need to be on the lookout for fake products which cheat them out of money in return for poor quality, non-genuine products.
In response to this, leading brands like HP work hard to protect customers from fraudsters whose fake products damage the trust between businesses and their customers, as well as creating potentially harmful products. Over the last four years across EMEA, HP has conducted nearly 1,000 investigations, resulting in over 800 enforcement actions (raids by authorities) and the confiscation of almost nine million units of fake printing products from the region, including ink and laser cartridges.
In Saudi Arabia, one example of this is the seizure of 67,000 illicit items including fake HP printing supplies, packaging, laptop adaptors and manufacturing equipment. With on-site support from HP, authorities seized around 55,000 finished counterfeit printer cartridges for HP printers and more than 5,000 fake laptop adaptors.
Counterfeiting is not just a problem for HP and other brands whose intellectual property rights are infringed, it also harms customers who use printing for their business or at home. Businesses across all industries rely on high quality printed documents and images to shape their reputation, generate new business and communicate with their clients and partners. These businesses, from local hospitals and schools to international banks are being targeted by counterfeiters and sold sub-standard ink or toner cartridges.
Saudi Arabia
According to recent research across various countries conducted by Forrester, nearly one-fifth (17 percent) of organisations in Saudi Arabia have been offered or purchased counterfeit printer cartridges. 1
This is having a damaging effect on businesses: Saudi Arabian respondents cited print quality and inconsistency as the leading indicators of counterfeit cartridges (85 percent). Almost two-thirds (62 percent) said they found out the cartridges were counterfeit because the printer failed frequently.
Counterfeit cartridges are also damaging relationships and trust between Saudi businesses and the suppliers who unknowingly sell fake printing supplies to their customers: over three-quarters (77 percent) said they felt angry when they found out that these cartridges were counterfeit and 80 percent would even consider changing their supplier if they discovered that they sell counterfeit cartridges.
###
Rather than saving money by providing a similar product at a lower cost, counterfeit printing supplies can actually cost businesses and consumers money. They are more likely to fail or leak which can ruin a printer and may invalidate its warranty, meaning customers may have to pay for repairs or even buy a new printer. Furthermore, HP Original supplies not only provide consistency and higher quality but they use ink more effectively: a recent study by Buyers Laboratory found that on average, Original HP ink cartridges print up to 50 percent more pages than the tested refilled or remanufactured alternatives.2
It is important that legitimate brands protect their investment in research and development so they can continue to create innovations which will benefit customers. Brands like HP want to pursue counterfeiters, whilst working side by side with alternative manufacturers who create legitimate cartridges. There is an important distinction to be made between these two distinct groups:
Counterfeiters produce refilled or remanufactured print cartridges packed in fake reproductions of branded packaging, which are meant to mislead consumers into believing that they are buying genuine products from a certain manufacturer. These illegal products are very different to legitimate refilled or remanufactured cartridges which are clearly marked as such and are sold in packaging which is very different to the packaging of the original manufacturer.
As with all original brands when compared to fakes, the main sign that a cartridge is a genuine product is the high quality and consistent prints it produces as well as unopened packaging in good condition. However, there are other factors which could indicate that a cartridge you are buying is not the genuine original that it claims to be.
To make it even simpler for customers to protect themselves against fakes, HP has created innovative Authentication Software, which customers can download and install on their PCs,, as well as holographic labels and Quick Response (QR) codes which customers can validate using a web-enabled smartphone or online via www.hp.com/go/ok.3
Laszlo Czinege, General Manager, Printing & Personal Systems, HP Saudi Arabia, said: “The war against counterfeiters is constantly evolving and at HP we are working in partnership with other global brands and international organisations to find new ways to tackle counterfeiting across the world. Our priority is protecting our customers from the illegal and deceitful actions of counterfeiters who produce poor-quality and potentially harmful products in order to generate easy profit from unsuspecting customers.”