Why buy a genuine?
KYOCERA has received evidence that counterfeit (fake) KYOCERA toners have been circulating within the EMEA territory. We take this illegal and potentially harmful activity extremely seriously.
This is because counterfeit products do not match the very strict quality standards of KYOCERA and therefore cannot deliver the same quality, reliability, and performance. Our customers must be alert to this issue, because you, as a customer, can face significant technical problems from using counterfeit toners. For example, toner powder leaks, erratic printer/MFP behaviour, colour aberrations, and colour streaking, which could lead to printer/MFP downtimes. Also, using counterfeit toners can interrupt your workflows.
On the other hand, genuine KYOCERA products are compliant with international and EU laws (such as WEEE, RoHS Directive, REACH Regulation) and have received environmental certifications e.g. the Blue Angel Mark and the Nordic Swan. They are therefore safe to use. Counterfeit KYOCERA products, which are illegally manufactured, are also highly unlikely to comply with these EU standards and therefore a greater risk to health and the environment.
What is the difference between counterfeit and third party/compatible toner?
A counterfeit product is manufactured and packaged to look like an original KYOCERA product and may have false KYOCERA trademarks or brand marks on the toner container or packaging. A third party or compatible product bears the name of a third party manufacturer, and does not have KYOCERA trade marks or brand marks on the toner container or packaging. The information on this page is not about third party/compatible toner but only concerns counterfeit toner products.
Kyocera’s Policy on counterfeit products
Manufacturing, exporting, importing, and selling counterfeit products are illegal acts that damage customers’ trust in our company and violate our company’s intellectual property rights. Consequently, there are extremely serious criminal law and civil law consequences for individuals and/or businesses manufacturing and/or selling, distributing, or dealing in counterfeit products. To protect our customers from counterfeit products and to ensure that our customers feel safe when using our products, we are taking various measures to eliminate counterfeit products.
Legal action
Law Enforcement: KYOCERA is in close cooperation with customs and law enforcement throughout EMEA and we refer counterfeiting matters to prosecuting authorities leading to raids against premises for seizures of counterfeit goods. We also continually update customs (through meetings and presentations) with information so they can recognize suspicious products to stop the import and export of counterfeits at the borders.
Civil litigation: Alternatively, once we discover a company has sold a counterfeit KYOCERA product, we take legal action to ensure the company signs undertakings to pledge never to sell counterfeit products in the future. We also demand that they destroy stored counterfeit products and disclose the names of the suppliers from whom they have purchased counterfeit products.
Either way, our zero tolerance policy ensures that ultimately all counterfeit products seized are confiscated and destroyed and that counterfeit product manufacturers and traders are held legally responsible.
Cooperation
KYOCERA works independently and in cooperation with other companies in the industry, to remove counterfeit products from the EMEA markets, e.g. the ICCE (www.icce.net) and REACT (www.react.org) to combat the manufacture, sale, and purchase of counterfeits globally.
How to identify counterfeit products?
KYOCERA has special technology features. An example is the KYOCERA security hologram (trustgram) on the toner container, which makes it easier to identify a counterfeit toner. There are several indicators of a counterfeit toner, which we wish to draw to your attention:
- The method by which counterfeit toners are sold can differ from the way of normal business and consumer transactions.
- Toners sold at unusual low price are an indication that they might be counterfeit.
- The seller urges you to place an order to get the “best price” or offers large quantities but you have to order and pay immediately.
- KYOCERA logos, or the printing on the packaging in general, is of poor quality, blurry, wrong colour, wrong font or size.
- Look for spelling errors.
- Materials used in the counterfeit toners are most likely of poorer quality than genuine in a genuine toner.
The security hologram, in combination with a handy viewer, permits a secure product authentication. The trustgram is attached to the product and can be found on the refill cap of the toner. In case the colour of the hologram does not shift, when checked with the handy viewer, the product is a counterfeit product.
