Stop the "clever chips" (Diana Wallis MEP)

Diana Wallis MEP <info@dianawallismep.org.uk>

Stop the "clever chips"

April 3, 2002 12:00 AM

WARNING - the computer printers used by hundreds of thousands of people across Yorkshire & the Humber could be too clever by half!

The world's leading makers of printers and copiers have been accused of fitting electronic devices intended to prevent used equipment being recycled. Now a local Euro-MP is taking them on.

Britain's re-manufacturers, who employ more than 30,000 people to repair equipment and refill printer cartridges, claim that so-called 'clever chips' are being used to curb competition and keep prices high.

They say that the technology used to display information about machine faults is now being used to shut down printers or give warnings intended to deter customers from installing remanufactured parts or refilled ink cartridges.

With the devices still in their infancy, the recyclers fear that they will increasingly be used to protect the position of dominant manufacturers unless action is taken.

And they point to a patent taken out in the USA and Europe by Lexmark International which enables ink jet cartridges to destroy themselves rather than be refilled and re-used. When the level of ink falls an electrical current is activated which burns out the printer head.

A bid will be made in the European Parliament next week (Wednesday April 10) to curb the use of such devices.

Yorkshire & the Humber MEP Diana Wallis, who is the Liberal Democrat's Internal Market spokesperson, is supporting an amendment to a draft electronic waste directive which will require EU governments to ensure that goods have not been designed to prevent their re-use.

She said: "The volume of electronic waste being discarded each year is growing fast. The environmental priority should be to encourage its re-use where possible before it has to be broken up and melted down.

"It's quite obvious that 'clever chips' intended to prevent re-use and recycling break the spirit of this new law. What is going on is both anti-environmental and anti-competitive. We need to deter the manufacturers now before they think of even more ways of using this technology to curb competition."

European Commission officials have given a cautious welcome to the proposal, admitting that had they known of the use to which the new technology was being put they would have incorporated deterrents in the draft electrical and electronic waste directive.