Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to prevent printer manufacturers from locking devices to only being able to use approved printer cartridges.

The Government is committed to tackling consumer rip-offs and bad business practices. The Government has ensured that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has significant powers and expertise to investigate such issues.

Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, it is a criminal offence to provide consumers with misleading information or omit important details about a product they are purchasing.

Under competition law, the CMA is responsible for investigating individual and market-wide competition issues. Consumers and businesses should report concerns about competition issues to the CMA.