I thought that to programme something to only accept your products was illegal under the competition laws.
Pray do tell what law would that be ?
It's a common practice in the IT industry, and not restricted to printers either.
It also occurs, for example, with expensive pieces of network kit worth many thousands of pounds where the manufacturer restricts which GBICs can be plugged into them to enable you to light up fibre cables. Just like your printer, with some manufacturers you can use OEM GBICs without issues, with others it just doesn't work.
Given the deep pockets of those who buy such equipment, if it was against competition law, you can be assured it would have been dealt with by now.
Unfortunatley it's just the nature of the IT industry..... shift as many boxes as possible and seek vendor tie-in both short term in form of cross-sell an up-sell, and long-term in the form of support contracts etc.
I had used compatable cartridges with other printers before and even in this case the printer accepted them initially.
Pure luck rather than anything else.
Buy yourself a laser printer and enjoy the better value for money.
