Cartridge World Launches Campaign to ‘Stop Ink Insanity’

Cartridge World, a retailer of third-party ink and toner cartridges, is launching a campaign to promote proposed legislation in New Jersey that would require vendors of ink cartridges to state on the cartridges’ packaging how many pages the cartridge are capable of printing. Cartridge World, which is headquarter in Illinois, has 31 stores in New Jersey.

Cartridge World says it’s launching the “Stop the Ink-Sanity” public-relations campaign to “shed a light on printer manufacturers’ pricing tactics.” The pending New Jersey legislation will make it unlawful for inkjet-printer manufacturers to sell a printer without indicating the average cost per 1,000 printed pages. Plus, page-yield information must be disclosed on all new printer ink cartridges. The bill (A628), sponsored by Rep. Paul D. Moriarty (D), passed out of the assembly committee and is currently awaiting hearing on the full assembly floor in the next few weeks. Per the legislation, if the manufacturers don’t comply, they face a penalty of $10,000 for a first offense and $20,000 for any subsequent offense.

In February 2014, New Jersey Chris Christie vetoed the bill; however, the New Jersey State Assembly is now seeking to re-introduce it. Christie, a Republican, is likely to veto the bill if it’s sent to him again. However, a vetoed bill may become law if the legislature overrides the veto by a 2/3 vote.

The bill requires:

• The ink cartridge have an attached tag or label that conspicuously displays the average cost per 1,000 printed pages for black text printing; and
• If the printer is capable of printing photographs or in color, its packaging, or conspicuously displayed and attached tag or label, must include the average cost per 1,000 printed pages for color printing.
• The average cost per page for black text printing shall be calculated by dividing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price by the cartridge yield for all of the printer’s ink cartridges.  The average cost per page shall be the total cost per page for all the printer’s ink cartridges. Yield shall be determined using the ISO/IEC 24711:2007 and ISO/IEC 19752:2007 standards for determining black text yields.
• The average cost per page for color printing shall be calculated by dividing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price by the cartridge yield for all of the printer’s ink cartridges. The average cost per page shall be total cost per page for all of the printer’s ink cartridges. Yield shall be determined using the ISO/IEC 24711:2007 and ISO/IEC 24712:2007 standards for color printing.