Counterfeit products damaging trust between businesses and suppliers

Nearly 17 percent of the organizations operating in the Kingdom have been offered or purchased counterfeit printer cartridges, according to a survey conducted in several countries. 
Forrester Consulting on behalf of HP conducted the survey, in June last year, observing that such a trend has a damaging effect on businesses. 
Saudi Arabian respondents cited print quality and inconsistency, as the leading indicators of counterfeit cartridges, while around 62 percent said they discovered the cartridges were counterfeit because the printer failed frequently.
Counterfeit cartridges are also damaging relationships and trust between Saudi businesses and the suppliers who unknowingly sell fake printing supplies to their customers. It was revealed that over 77 percent felt angry when they found out that these cartridges were counterfeit and 80 percent stated they would consider changing their supplier if they discovered that they sell counterfeit cartridges. 
“The war against counterfeiters is constantly evolving and at HP we are working in partnership with other global brands and international organizations to find new ways to tackle counterfeiting across the world,” said Laszlo Czinege, general manager of Printing and Personal Systems group, HP Saudi Arabia. 
“Our priority is protecting our customers from the illegal and deceitful actions of counterfeiters who produce poor-quality and potentially harmful products in order to generate easy profit from unsuspecting customers. When it comes to the global trade in counterfeit goods, there is always more work to be done. Businesses and consumers need to be on the lookout for fake products which cheat them out of money in return for poor quality, non-genuine products,” he added. 
In response to this, Czinege said leading brands like HP work hard to protect customers from fraudsters whose fake products damage the trust between businesses and their customers, as well as creating potentially harmful products. ”
Over the last four years across EMEA, HP has conducted nearly 1,000 investigations, resulting in over 800 enforcement actions (raids by authorities) and the confiscation of almost 9 million units of fake printing products from the region, including ink and laser cartridges.” 
“In Saudi Arabia, one example of this is the seizure of 67,000 illicit items including fake HP printing supplies, packaging, laptop adaptors and manufacturing equipment. With on-site support from HP, authorities seized around 55,000 finished counterfeit printer cartridges for HP printers and more than 5,000 fake laptop adaptors.” 
Counterfeiting is not just a problem for HP and other brands whose intellectual property rights are infringed, it also harms customers who use printing for their business or at home.
Businesses across all industries rely on high quality printed documents and images to shape their reputation, generate new business and communicate with their clients and partners.
These businesses, from local hospitals and schools to international banks are being targeted by counterfeiters and sold sub-standard ink or toner cartridges.
Counterfeiters produce refilled or re-manufactured print cartridges packed in fake reproductions of branded packaging are meant to mislead consumers into believing that they are buying genuine products from a certain manufacturer. 
As with all original brands when compared to fakes, Czinege pointed out that the main sign that a cartridge is a genuine product is the high quality and consistent prints it produces as well as good packaging condition.