"Somewhere, a low-level supplier is having rather deep chats with its lawyers and insurers."
Or not. More likely some backyard shop in china has shut down, for a brand new one to come up in its place, purely conincedently, doing exactly the same thing the previous factory did. Heck, I might say there are some of the same faces too.
This part of the industry is rife with fakes. This is an old, and ongoing issue, where if you can skimp 0.00002 cents on a product, they'll do better. It's so cut-throat, some don't care anymore about what it complies with: Aside from the inferior plastics, they're routinely using less copper too.
One thing they don't skimp on, are the auth stamps on the base of the plug, you know, where it says FCC, CE, c-tick, 10 amps etc, all the important bits that don't mean shit for fake cables.
And if you're wondering, yes, it passes the mains cable test jig with flying colours. It after all doesn't test for rubbish plastics, or less copper, only for shorts and high voltages (of which EVERY new cable will pass regardless of pedigree).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
