HP offers a deal to European remanufacturers
September 1, 2020
HP has been reaching out to European remanufacturers to encourage them to support an OEM voluntary agreement and offers a new exclusive programme.
HP has been reaching out to European remanufacturers to garner support for the Voluntary Agreement (VA) OEMs, Remanufacturers, EU officials and others are currently negotiating ahead of the January 2021 deadline. In the event that a VA is not concluded the EU would introduce legislation as part of “The Green Deal” published earlier this year.
The OEM’s (Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lexmark, OKI, Sharp, Toshiba and Xerox) meet through their EuroVAprint ASBL which is a non-profit association grouping all major manufacturers of imaging equipment that operate in Europe.
EuroVAprints current President is HP’s Sara Rodriguez Martinez who is on record of favouring “a VA over regulation because a specific understanding and the technological knowledge will most probably not be reflected to a sufficient extent in a regulation” and that a “VA would be timewise more efficient than a regulation”
For the first time, European remanufacturers are now being engaged to discuss how a VA would only be applicable to the signatories and supporters of the new VA.
Currently 3T Supplies AG/Peach, ARMOR SAS, Clover Imaging Group, Delacamp, KMP AG and Printerre are in negotiations regarding both the VA and a series of Bilateral Agreements (BA) between the respective OEMs and the aftermarket supporters. The BA’s would come into force once the VA was agreed.
A person familiar with both the VA and BA told The Recycler that HP would be proposing a new programme to remanufacturing companies under a bilateral arrangement, where the remanufacturer is a supporting signatory to the VA. The BA would be offered on commercial reasonable terms (not yet disclosed) but could include access to OEM empty cartridges, OEM chip resetting, functioning ink or toner level gauge, for printing with reused cartridges in OEM signatory products.
A BA would be a separate agreement between HP and the remanufacturing company for this programme.
“It is a crucial time,” said David Connett, Partner at Connett & Unland GbR. “If an agreement can be reached, a VA could be in place as early as next year but would only be binding on the signatories. Non-signatories would not be obliged to abide by the VA or be able to benefit from any OEM bilateral agreements. Legislation on the other hand, would cover the whole industry and ensure everyone is operating by the same rules in a similar way to the motor industry, but it will take longer to put in place.”
Categories : World Focus
