Several of HP‘s printer models no longer accept private label ink, which is often much cheaper than its own ink cartridges. Manufacturers however often make much more money from the sale of ink than from printers.
Software update
The American brand admitted several models have that functionality built in or that they were given a software update to block non-HP ink in an alleged attempt to protect its own intellectual property. On top of that, its own ink cartridges generate a lot more money: on average, its 50 milliliter cartridges cost about 30 euro, while private labels often do not even charge half that.
Ever since last week, the OfficeJet Pro and OfficeJet Pro X are two of the company’s models that no longer accept cheaper ink. Dutch 123inkt, which sells its own ink cartridges for all types of printers, says a new software update created the block.
However, this does not mean HP can just halt competitors’ sales that easily, because 123inkt already altered its cartridges’ chips to make sure HP printers will accept them despite the recent software update. These new cartridges are not on sale yet, but will be soon.
