HP’s Mathew Thomas (Credit: Channel Post MEA.)
HP Inc’s Managing Director for the Middle East, Turkey, and East Africa, has written about the ongoing battle against counterfeiters in the region’s print markets.
Writing for Channel Post MEA, Mathew Thomas describes the issue as taking “an immeasurable toll on the hard-earned reputation of each print service provider or channel partner” affected. He names the financial impact of counterfeiting on the worldwide printing supplies industry as $3 billion (€2.4 billion) every year, quoting statistics from the Imaging Supplies Coalition.
“It’s a problem acutely felt by printer manufacturers worldwide,” explains Thomas, who notes that the high demand around the world for products such as ink and toner has meant a significant increase in counterfeit products. He adds that the “the growth of online retail has only made it easier for counterfeiters to operate.”
Other negative effects of counterfeit products cited by Thomas include “poor printout quality”; “affected print yields”; “printer downtime”; “extra costs”; and “loss of money due to non-functioning counterfeit cartridges.” More dramatically, Thomas also writes of the “serious health and safety risks” that counterfeit products – and their potentially faulty and unsafe components – can bring. As well as counterfeit products themselves, he also takes aim at companies selling fake products under misleading and fake branding to appear like the genuine article.
Thomas announces that HP have put in place Customer Delivery Inspections for end customers, as part of wider strategy to tackle the fakes. The CDIs allow customers to request the inspection of large or medium-sized HP deliveries, if they are suspected of containing counterfeit materials. They are then carried out at the partner’s location, when convenient, and at no charge.
“The goal of these inspections is to identify counterfeit products before they are sold on and reach the end consumer,” Thomas explains.
He declares that HP has worked with law enforcement agencies to seize nearly 2 million counterfeit products in EMEA between May and October 2016, and has overseen “significant successful operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, to name a few.”
Thomas concludes by offering users and consumers some tips on protecting themselves from fakes, including scanning the box’s QR code for access to HP’s official validation screen; check for the holographic security label of authenticity; and visit the OEM’s website to validate serial numbers and security labels.
