HP intensifies fight against fake cartridges in India

For HP India the menace of fake cartridges has been rampant. As per the internal studies done by HP, close to 1 out of 10 cartridges in the market today could be a counterfeit. In the last year alone, HP Global Anti-Counterfeiting (ACF) team seized counterfeited toners and cartridges with a total value of Rs 10.8 crore in different parts of India. HP takes a proactive approach and runs an ACF, alerting and educating customers on the benefits of genuine toner and ink cartridges and how to identify counterfeit printing supplies.

Nitin Hiranandani, director, printing systems, HP Personal and Printing Systems told The DQ Week, "During January and February 2013, HP announced the seizure of more than 2,200 counterfeit supplies from 54 raids conducted across 22 cities in India. These cities included Jaipur, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Kanpur and others."

This seizure was conducted by local police team, where the authorities seized 451 finished Inks, 933 finished toners, 110 unfinished inks, 147 unfinished toners, 40 ink packages, 315 toner packages, 230 toner security labels and other materials, components with a total value estimated at Rs 58 lakh. Eighty individuals were arrested and will be subject to criminal prosecution.

He highlighted, "HP takes aggressive steps towards curbing fake cartridges. HP works closely with authorities and external rights enforcing agencies to uncover and report the prevalence of counterfeit cartridges. In addition, HP runs an aggressive anti-counterfeit program under which it ensures the stocks of HP wholesale and commercial partners are free from counterfeits by conducting random inspections and audits - known as channel partner anti-counterfeit Audits."

The program routinely uncovers entities involved in re-packaging, manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit cartridges that are sold as HP cartridges.

In an effort to promote originals, HP has developed innovative ways for customers to identify original products from counterfeit cartridges. These include HP's product packaging, which displays a security seal with color shifting technology that helps customers to identify original HP supplies. In 2012, HP introduced security seals with QR codes, allowing for Mobile Authentication with the QR code reader on customers' mobile device or the HP eSupplies mobile app.

On the pricing front, HP has also introduced low-cost, high-capacity HP ink cartridges, available for Rs 449 for black and color, delivering original quality printing at a low cost per page. HP's unique initiatives like mobile authentication, dial-a-cartridge and click-a-cartridge help consumers purchase original supplies easily and conveniently.