In brief: The printing industry is widely criticized for forcing customers to purchase expensive ink cartridges from printer manufacturers instead of cheaper third-party alternatives. The city of Los Angeles is preparing to take a small step against this practice, but the legislation stems from environmental concerns rather than consumer protection.
L.A. City Council recently voted unanimously on a framework to ban ink cartridges that cannot be refilled or recycled. The law will likely draw praise from users, but printer manufacturers will probably still try to lock users into notorious razor-and-blade business models.
Details for the framework remain unclear, but the city likely aims to keep empty ink cartridges out of landfills, similar to the city's ban on single-use plastic straws, as part of its zero-waste plan. Los Angeles hopes to eliminate almost all of its waste by 2045.
Refilling empty ink cartridges is usually cheaper than purchasing new cartridges, but printer manufacturers such as HP and Epson have attempted to prevent the practice through DRM and subscriptions. Firmware updates have caused printers to cease functioning upon detecting third-party cartridges, even when performing non-printing operations, such as scanning.
Epson was accused in 2018 of utilizing DRM to prevent customers from refilling the company's cartridges. Furthermore, HP admitted that it aimed to lock in customers so they exclusively purchase the company's equipment when using its printers. Even Brother, once praised for supporting third-party cartridges and toner, was caught distributing DRM to degrade print quality from third-party cartridges.
The tactics are designed to uphold a razor-and-blade business model in which expensive cartridges and subscriptions offset the relatively low prices of printers. HP, which has settled multiple lawsuits over its actions without admitting wrongdoing, referred to users who don't buy the company's ink as a bad investment.
Banning single-use cartridges is unlikely to stop manufacturers from employing DRM, since the major players already have official channels for managing refills. HP encourages customers to recycle cartridges at major retailers, and other companies sell name-brand toner.
In response to the current situation, Paris-based Open Tools unveiled the Open Printer last year. Since the software and all components are open-source, the printer will never lock out refills or third-party cartridges, and users can make modifications freely. However, months after revealing the design, the company has not yet confirmed when its crowdfunding campaign will launch.