Launched: October 2001
To address competition concerns and concerns regarding levels of consumer protection in the market.
To examine whether there is consumer detriment as a result of consumers having little product knowledge at the point of purchase and finding it difficult to compare products and consider the quality of support services and the fairness of consumer contract terms.
(Study followed in-house work.)
The findings of the study showed the market working well, but could serve consumers better, particularly with information on support services and printer cartridges.
The OFT's main recommendations to improve how the market works for consumers included:
1. clear information at point of sale and in promotional literature on support services, including cost of telephone help-lines
2. the development of systems, and the training of sales staff, to guide consumers more effectively through the purchasing process, and
3. the development of a test standard against which the performance of inkjet cartridges can be measured uniformly. The results should be made available by retailers to consumers at the point of sale.
Recommendations to industry largely acted on included:
1. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) produced a standard for monochrome laser printer cartridge yield. A colour inkjet printer cartridge standard was in development.
2. The industry agreed verbally to provide clearer consumer information and better staff training to identify consumers' requirements and help them make appropriate purchases - large retailers advised that they have improved the technical training for their staff.
3. Most major printer manufacturers dropped terms from their warranties that invalidated the warranty if consumers used ink cartridges not made by the printer manufacturer.
4. OFT produced a consumer information leaflet, [OFT615] 'Buying a PC' (pdf 96 kb) in December 2002. This leaflet provides help to guide through the jargon and tangle of buying a PC.
5. Complaints to Trading Standards Services about IT equipment fell by almost 50 percent from 2001 to 2004.
See press release 'Consumer IT market working well - but room for improvement OFT reports on consumer IT goods and services. 5 December 2002
Download the report Consumer IT goods and services December 2002 (pdf 336 kb)
Download the research report The consumer PC market in Europe (pdf 216 kb).
Download the research report The consumer PC market in the United States (pdf 207 kb).
See Guidance to the industry on unfair contract terms and distance selling regulations December 2005 (pdf 544 kb)
See questionnaire that sellers can use to clarify the needs of consumers, and can be downloaded as a pdf file (pdf 71 kb), or as a Word file (word 207 kb).
Back to: Markets work
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