[toss1]

It IS a fraud and a counterfeit to illegally sell a device without a proper FCC license. They are either selling the device with a license ID for a different device (Counterfeit) or selling it without any license (Fraud).

Either way, it certainly has not gone through the required tests for not producing unacceptable levels of interference, and so could at the very least create problems in your environment and other devices.

[phpisthebest]

If would only be "fraud and a counterfeit" if they were to affix an FCC label on the device with out having it approved by the FCC.

However if they are simply selling a device that is not approved and registered with the FCC, they are violating FCC regulations but it is not "fraud and a counterfeit"

>so could at the very least create problems in your environment and other devices.

First that assumes facts not in evidence, there is nothing proving FCC provides any actual value to society in the realm of testing. Other standards bodies or even an international approval outside of the FCC can more than fill that void. Look at electrical safety, there is no governmental body that approves devices for electrical safety that is 2(?) private organizations the most famous being UL, but there are others

Second outside of regulatory requirements one would have to assume a consumer even cares if a device is "FCC Approved" I suspect most do not care at all.

[toss1]

>>If would only be "fraud and a counterfeit" if they were to affix an FCC label on the device with out having it approved by the FCC.

While I'm sure you meant "It" vs "If", it was a typo for me to write only "and" vs the intended "and/or".

I can also point out from having dealt with the FCC that it is a very common practice to do what you said and affix a label for a different approved device to a non-approved device.

As far as the FCC's value, it has been a while and may have changed, but IIRC it is up to the device manufacturer to get tests run in an approved RF lab and provide the results to the FCC (so it works/worked a lot like you are suggesting); AFAIK they do selected tests, not all tests.

And yes the FCC DOES provide significant value here. While no one cares about the "FCC Approved" label while buying, without the process there would be a huge amount of interference and most wireless stuff wouldn't work at all. There are thousands of ways to unintentionally fork-up a radio design and thousands more to fork-up a circuit design so it unintentionally emits and receives interference.

Only by being required to check and comply with emissions limits is the RF space even half-way usable — and we're talking about not only your wireless earbuds or car radio, but GPS and aircraft navigation. Even aircraft navigation systems are an issue today because of old-generation equipment and new 5G bandwidth usage creating interference, so they need to rework the standards and install upgraded devices.

Just because the average consumer doesn't know or care does not mean it's unimportant. The average consumer also doesn't know or care about the entire food safety regime, they just expect that they can eat what the get at the grocery store and not die. Similarly, because of the FCC regs, we can expect that we can bring home and turn on a new device and not have it make every other device on the street fail.