We regret that we have recently had to raise the price of these cartridges. This is purely due to an increase in the supply cost of the cartridges, which is controlled by an exclusivity agreement between Lexmark and the PCWorld/Currys/Dixons group. Lexmark will not sell these cartridges to us directly - they supply them exclusively to the PCWorld/Currys/Dixons group. We are therefore forced to buy the cartridges from the PCWorld/Currys/Dixons group - so when they raise the price of the cartridges, we are unfortunately forced to follow suit. We 're not happy with the situation - but unfortunately there doesn 't appear to be anything we can do about it. Please feel free to complain to Lexmark - we 've tried, but they don 't even have the courtesy to return our telephone calls. We recommend that anyone with a Lexmark printer considers buying an Epson, Canon or HP printer in future.