Victorian Police have arrested three people and charged one in connection with the alleged selling of counterfeit Epson inkjet printer cartridges on eBay.

June 9, 2005: Victorian Police have arrested three people and charged one in connection with the alleged selling of counterfeit Epson inkjet printer cartridges on eBay.
In a raid on a house in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill in late May, 4435 cartridges and associated packaging were seized. The cartridges have a street value of up to $30 each or more than $130,000 in total. The cartridge packaging carried the label “Made for use in China”. The person who has been charged had been attempting to sell the alleged counterfeit cartridges in small quantities on eBay as genuine Epson inkjet cartridges. He was charged with attempting to obtain property by deception, obtaining property by deception, and various copyright and trademark infringements. He is expected to appear in Ringwood Court on 8 August 2005.
Epson Australia MD, Bruno Turcato, said Epson is concerned that Epson printer owners who unknowingly buy counterfeit or non-genuine cartridges may wrongly expect them to perform as well and deliver the same quality print as genuine Epson cartridges. He said use of non-genuine or counterfeit cartridges creates a significant problem, not just for Epson and its distributors and resellers, but also for users, as they may cause damage to the print head resulting in expensive repair costs that are not be covered by Epson’s product warranty. Where Epson detects during repair that the cartridge is counterfeit or non-genuine, it advises the customer of the cause of the problem.
“If a user buys cartridges they believe are counterfeit they should immediately contact Epson and we will investigate the source of the cartridges and, if appropriate, take legal action,” Mr Turcato said. Importing or selling counterfeit cartridges is an offence under both the Trade Practices Act and the Australian Trademarks Act 1995. Any non-genuine cartridge that carries a replica of Epson’s trademark fraudulently misrepresents the cartridge and ink as genuine Epson products.