Counterfeit activities are increasingly undermining legitimate business standards and practices in Nigeria and defrauding Nigerians, who believe they are buying original brand-name quality.
According to the HP-commissioned research from Forrester, Nigeria is, in fact, home to the highest number of African businesses surveyed that have either been offered or unintentionally purchased counterfeit cartridges, as cited by fifty percent of business survey respondents.
93 percent of organisations in Nigeria would even consider changing their supplier if they discovered that they sell counterfeit cartridges.
A large number of Nigerian survey respondents demonstrated their awareness of the issue of counterfeit supplies, by citing print quality and inconsistency as the leading indicators of counterfeit cartridges (74 percent each).
While original manufacturers in various industries are considering how to protect their customers against counterfeit goods, HP has already deployed a number of measures to ensure that its customers receive only authentic HP printing supplies.
For example, HP’s Mobile Authentication technology is now widely available for Original HP print cartridges in Nigeria. Customers can verify the authenticity of their cartridges using HP Mobile Authentication to check the security labels of both inkjet and LaserJet toner cartridges.
HP security labels feature sophisticated holographic properties as well as a Quick Response (QR) code, which means that the user can easily validate his/her cartridge with a web-enabled smartphone or online via the HP web page: www.hp.com/go/ok.
After verifying cartridge purchases with HP Mobile Authentication, customers can also validate cartridge authenticity by using the HP Software Authentication technology for LaserJet cartridges.
HP Software Authentication is free software available for most LaserJet printers that validates whether the cartridge installed is a brand new Original HP LaserJet cartridge or not. If the cartridge is not a brand new genuine HP cartridge, customers will receive a message from HP, advising them what to do next. This software is already pre-installed in HP Inkjet printers.
Tina Rose, Manager, ACF Marketing Programme, HP EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) said: “The HP Anti-counterfeiting Programme works hard to protect partners and customers by making it difficult to produce, distribute and sell counterfeits. This recent innovation in labels and packaging is an example of HP using technology to stay one step ahead of fraudsters, especially in Nigeria where counterfeiting is a serious issue.”
Through its Anti-counterfeiting Program, HP actively educates its customers and partners to be vigilant against fake printing supplies. It also cooperates closely with local and global law enforcement authorities to detect and dismantle illegal operations that produce counterfeit HP printing components.
All over EMEA, over the last four years, HP has conducted more than 1,000 investigations, resulting in over 800 enforcement actions (raids and seizures by authorities) and nearly 9 million units of counterfeit products and components seized, thus preventing them from being sold in the EMEA marketplace and beyond.