It's great to see RFI problem that impact the profits of big firms. Most RFI is generated because firms cut corners and lazy/crony regulators fail to enforce FCC part 15 rules.
Exactly. In many devices, including switching supplies, a bit of attention (and a few very low-cost parts) will bring the devices into compliance. RFI suppression steps are in the data sheet / example circuit for nearly all components used in switching supplies, FWIW.
But just as firms want to be able to import steaks that have been made from cattle raised near polluted foreign rivers, firms import power supplies made with RFI-suppression parts omitted because someone along the way wants that $0.15 as profit and US regulators don't care.
Incidentally, a law was passed fairly recently that allows agricultural firms to remove information about where food items were produced, so quite possibly the steaks we eat will soon be made from cows who drink the water runoff from the polluting factories that make the low quality switching supplies.
Our "first world" environmental regulations (food quality, air and water quality, RF noise floor) are only as good as our regulation of imported products that commit fraud by selling products that do not comply. By failing to enforce these laws, US regulators have helped foreign firms cheat their way into the US market, putting US firms out of business and harming consumers indirectly by polluting their environment.
I'm not arguing that all of those regulations make sense, just that it is silly to have laws that we don't enforce when the health consequences and RFI consequences harm everyone.
Do you mean devices with RFI-suppression components omitted to save cost? Those devices are subject to FCC part 15 rules just like devices manufactured domestically.
> from off-brand vendors
Again, who is supposed to enforce that these vendors comply with US laws? My point is that those laws are not enforced. The reason that look-alike Apple USB charger costs $3.99 is because it contains no RFI suppression parts and is probably made with toxic plastic.
It is the job of regulators to shut down firms importing this garbage. By failing to do so the regulators harm the people their regulations are supposed to protect. Meanwhile, US firms who comply with the rules can't sell their USB chargers for a competitive price so they go out of business.
Got it. Your first post made it sound like big, lazy firms were the problem. Sounds like what you're really talking about is cheap imported stuff and a lack of enforcement.
Yes. Some firms like Amazon profit heavily from the sale of counterfeit products and low-quality junk products that are shipped directly from overseas and cannot be inspected.
Most consumers won't realize that the USB charger they purchased for a fraction of the cost of a name brand product is why their phone's battery capacity declined so quickly.
With so many sellers on Amazon doing bait-and-switch, solving the problem is going to be very difficult for Amazon to solve without causing a disruption in the flow of low-cost electronics.