I can answer from an Australian perspective. Here's how it's supposed to work: Suppliers register and prove that their products comply with Australian standar

I can answer from an Australian perspective. Here's how it's supposed to work: Suppliers register and prove that their products comply with Australian standards, and are awarded a compliance number. That number is the consumer's indicator that a product is safe. Any interested party can check that the certification is genuine by looking up the compliance number in an online database. Here's how it works in practise: you're screwed. The relevant government department took the database off line years ago, and there still isn't a replacement. When you go to do a search, you arrive at a page that talks about the database in the future tense [1]: "The national database will list all the equipment registered by the responsible supplier". A supplier can put a fake mark on a product, and there is no easy way for a consumer to know if is genuine, making the marks virtually useless. The result is electrocution whilst listening to a plugged in music player with headphones [2]. [1] http://www.erac.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=127&Itemid=575 http://www.erac.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=art... [2] http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/warning-over-usb-chargers-after-woman-dies-from-apparent-electrocution-20140626-zsngd.html http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/warning-over-usb-chargers-after-wo... --- Edit: spelling