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TRENTON — Tired of running out of ink in your printer and spending money on costly refills?

A bill that now heads to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk aims to give you a heads up on how many pages you can expect to print with an ink cartridge.

 

The state Senate today passed the bill (A1230) 33-6. It would require manufacturers of printers and cartridges mark their products with an estimate of how much the average cost would be to print 1,000 pages.

 

“The amount of ink in these cartridges is so miniscule that it appears ink is worth more than champagne,” said Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), the bill’s sponsor. “For an ounce of ink – or less than an ounce of ink – you’re paying in some cases $50.”

The bill already passed the Assembly in February 2012 by a vote of 56-17 with 1 abstention, then languished for nearly two years before the state Senate took it up today without giving it a committee hearing.

The printer’s yield would have to be included on its packaging, or “conspicuously attached label or tag.” Currently, at least some companies list yields on their websites.

 

Companies that violate the law would face a $10,000 fine for the first offense and $20,000 fine for the second offense.

 

“This is a small industry that has found a way to sell something for a high price without people understanding anything about what it will do,” Moriarty said. “Think about going to a gas station and not knowing how much you’re getting, and not knowing how many miles per gallon the car you’re driving will get.”

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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. 

 

ASSEMBLY, No. 1230

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

215th LEGISLATURE

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION

 

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  PAUL D. MORIARTY

District 4 (Camden and Gloucester)

Assemblyman  PATRICK J. DIEGNAN, JR.

District 18 (Middlesex)

Assemblyman  GARY R. CHIUSANO

District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)

 

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Gusciora

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires printers to display average cost per 1,000 printed pages and ink cartridges to display yield.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

  

 

AN ACT concerning printing costs and supplementing P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.).

 

     BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     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.

 

     2.    a. It shall be an unlawful practice for any person to sell, or offer to sell, any printer unless:

     (1) Its packaging includes, or has an attached tag or label that conspicuously displays, the average cost per 1,000 printed pages for black text printing; and

     (2) If the printer is capable of printing photographs or in color, its packaging, or conspicuously displayed and attached tag or label, includes the average cost per 1,000 printed pages for color printing. 

     b.    For the purposes of this section, 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 sum of the quotients for all of the printer's ink cartridges. Yield shall be determined using the ISO/IEC 24711:2007 and ISO/IEC 19752:2007 standards for black text printing. 

     c.     For the purposes of this section, 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 the sum of the quotients 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. 

 

     3.    a. It shall be an unlawful practice for any person to sell, or offer to sell, any ink cartridge unless its packaging includes, or has an attached tag or label that conspicuously displays, the ink cartridge's yield.

     b.    For the purposes of this section, the yield for black ink cartridges shall be determined using the ISO/IEC 24711:2007 and ISO/IEC 19752:2007 standards for black text printing.

     c.     For the purposes of this section, the yield for color ink cartridges shall be determined using the ISO/IEC 24711:2007 and ISO/IEC 24712:2007 standards for color printing.


     4.    The Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs shall, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), adopt rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.

 

     5.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the 13th month following enactment.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill makes it an unlawful practice to sell a printer without information indicating the average cost per 1,000 printed pages for black text and, if applicable, color printing.  It is also an unlawful practice, under the bill, to sell an ink cartridge without information indicating the ink cartridge's yield.  This information would have to be included on the printer or ink cartridge's packaging, or on a conspicuously attached label or tag. 

     The bill specifies that the average cost per page is to be calculated by dividing the manufacturer's suggested retail price for the printer's cartridges by their yield.  Yield is to be determined using standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization. 

     A violation of this bill is an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud Act which is punishable by a monetary penalty of not more than $10,000 for a first offense and not more than $20,000 for any subsequent offense.  In addition, a violation can result in cease and desist orders issued by the Attorney General, the assessment of punitive damages, and the awarding of treble damages and costs to the injured party.

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.

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.

Last edited by txeagle24

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

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