EcoPro Subscriptions
Under this subscription service, customers can choose different plans based on their printout volume per month. They need to own the compatible Brother printers already to avail of this service, with the plan only offering the ink and toner supply. The reason behind this limitation is that the Brother printers already come with in-built software that can detect the ink and toner levels. When the levels get low enough, it can then automatically connect to the company's server and order a refill without your involvement. You can check the list of compatible printers on the Brother website.
This is not the same as the company's subscription service available for the UK market, which also gives customers the option to rent a Brother printer from the company within the cost of the plan itself. UK customers also have much higher tier plans available that go up to 6000 pages per month depending on company size.
Plans Available
The plans for the Europe market are also divided based on the number of printouts you usually go through in a month. You can pick between 50, 100, 300 and 500-page tiers, with unused printouts being carried over for up to two months before expiry. If you feel your needs exceed the plan limit, you can always switch to a different option. One unexpected benefit of this setup is the company only counts the pages printed, not the materials used. So, you could theoretically reduce your font size and print more information on fewer pages. While this will take more ink and toner, it will still reduce your overall costs as you are using fewer pages to get the job done. Since you don't pay for the amount of ink and toner itself, it is easy to game the system and get more utility out of it.
Pricing
The pricing for the ink printer plans start at €3.98 per month for the base 50 pages per month plan, and can go as high as €18.98 per month for 500 pages. The plans for laser printers are a bit cheaper, with the base plan costing only €1.99 per month and the top tier topping out at €17.99 per month. If you exceed the number of pages allotted, the company will charge you an extra €0.98 to €0.79 per extra sheet.
If this plans succeeds in this trial run, the company will eventually expand it to the rest of the European market, and eventually the Middle East and Asia.
