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HP Underscores Fight Against Fake Printing Supplies In Egypt
Published Feb 11, 2010
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During Cairo ICT 2010, HP Middle East underlined its commitment to local authorities and business partners in the fight against fake merchandise in Egypt. HP Middle East partnered with local authorities to battle with the growing social and economic issue around counterfeit inks and cartridges in Egypt.
Many studies indicate that often small and medium size businesses in Egypt are tempted to save costs by sourcing cheaper goods, which contributes to the $200 billion in annual global trade of counterfeit merchandise. The allure of imitation goods, especially now with the global economic downturn, is seductive.
While counterfeiting of print cartridges for HP’s LaserJet and Inkjet printers is a global issue, the Middle East and Africa are areas where organized counterfeit activity is especially rampant.
HP cooperates with law enforcement authorities to identify and seize counterfeit products, cut off distribution routes and prosecute fraudsters. In HP’s fiscal year 2009 (1 November 2008 through 31 October 2009) in EMEA, HP can report the seizure of nearly 2 million counterfeits and components intended for illegal reuse is more than twice the number of items confiscated during the previous year. In addition, HP noted more than 140 raids, 460 leads and 200 investigations.
In 2009, Ministry of Commerce in Egypt conducted raids in Alexandria where local authorities seized more than 27,000 finished fake laser and inkjet print cartridges and over 3000 empty print cartridges at five companies. The goods had been imported from China and Saudi Arabia. In addition, some shops were found to be running their own refilling activities.
HP Officials advised consumers to purchase cartridges from authorized HP resellers to ensure they are not counterfeit. HP also highlighted the fact that counterfeit products can damage printers, decrease printers’ performance, cause reliability issues and that the print quality produced by these fake goods will not be up to the standards expected of genuine HP products.
HP has also joined the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) Global Leadership Group as part of the company’s commitment to fight counterfeiting worldwide.
Formed by the International Chamber of Commerce, BASCAP unites the global business community to more effectively identify and address intellectual property rights issues and petition for greater commitments by local, national and international officials in the enforcement and protection of these rights.
As a group member, HP will support BASCAP’s efforts to connect and mobilize businesses across industries, sectors and national borders, as well as pool resources and expertise, to combat counterfeiting and create a greater critical mass than any single company or sector could do alone.
More information about HP’s print cartridge anti-counterfeiting efforts is available at www.hp.com/go/anticounterfeit.
For more information:
HP Middle East
Dalia Mohammed
dalia.mohamed@hp.com
Promax Egypt
Ghada Essokary
010 670 16 10
ghada.essokary@promaxpr.com
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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