But if one receives counterfit components from Mouser, Digikey etc. then it ought to be possible to make theese providers responsible ?
Yes, they would be the ones to be held responsible, as many have pointed out - just like the manufacturer of the widget is responsible to the store, and the store is responsible to the end user. The actual question is how much of that responsibility are they going to bear?
For most people hit by this particular 'bricking', they can go complain go the stores, and either they'll replace it, or they'll laugh in your face and wish you good luck navigating the asian legal terrain for a sub-$100 product; if you're lucky you used ebay/paypal/credit card/something and you can open a dispute and at least get that money back while sending the seller a message.
But say you're not just an end-user and you make the actual products and you do get a bad batch of counterfeits - won't speculate on how, or the odds, just say it did happen - they're in products, they've been sent all over the world, a driver update comes along and says it won't work.
You get a tweet from one of your customers, asking why the device won't work (presuming the driver isn't going to scream bloody murder about counterfeits) or why the driver
is screaming bloody murder about your product being counterfeit (no, they wouldn't really get the distinction about it complaining about the chip).
1. Wonder what on Earth your customer is on about, ask them for details, because you haven't a clue what's going on with that.
2. Check with legal and marketing&communications about how to best handle this counterfeit allegation before the press runs with it.
3. Get details from the user several hours later - maybe it's just a screenshot, there's not a whole lot they're likely to be going to be able to provide unless they know how to get driver versions and such; Windows tries to hide that, after all, as the user needn't be burdened by it.
4. Start an internal investigation into this matter, checking your various products that use the chip in question, from various batches, hunt down old stock just in case it's limited to just a specific batch, maybe even get the customer to send it in - on your expense - and fedex overnight them a replacement so that they can be on their way again while you figure out what's goig on.
5. In the mean time realize that your support people are dealing with several other tweets, facebook messages, e-mails and phonecalls, so put pressure on marcom for a statement, and then have that run by legal to make sure you're not shooting yourself in the foot with any of the words you're using.
6. Finally figure out that this is definitely related to a driver update that the users were not aware of and you certainly weren't aware of and, after making a call to your supplier, realize they weren't aware of it either. Still not sure why the driver's doing what it's doing.
7. Figure out that the issue is limited to just a specific batch of a specific product - now figure out what tape reels were used for that run, and see if the chips off of it were used anywhere else after all.
8. In the mean time, contact your supplier saying there's something wrong with a particular batch of chips you got. The supplier vaguely recalls your phone call from a few days ago, and tells you to mail the thing in for analysis.
9. Some time passes, because you told them that it seems to be just this particular set of reels, so it's not like there's a very high priority to deal with it as far as they're concerned, and - after they do a back-and-forth with the chip maker - tells you that the chip is counterfeit.
10. Because it's counterfeit, you figure you should do the right thing and issue a recall / trade-in program. Yes, that means that your company name is going to be mentioned here and there in connection with counterfeiting, despite marketing & communication's best effort to make the earlier statement deflect as much of the blame as possible. And yes, you will be blamed - just see the reactions here who suggest that end-users should take it up with their device manufacturers.
There's more steps if you really want to dot your i's and cross your t's, or there could be far fewer if you're just small fry and far less informal.
But which steps do you, realistically, believe a supplier is going to indemnify you for? Make sure you read those contracts you agree to when sourcing from them.
Mouser:
http://www2.mouser.com/saleterms/Digikey:
http://www.digikey.com/en/terms-and-conditionsFarnell:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oI-D6AK95PUJ:uk.farnell.com/terms-and-conditions&hl=en&strip=1 - (cached version - 'scheduled maintenance' at live site)
Conrad:
http://www.conrad.com/ce/en/content/extra_service_pick_up/Warranty-Return-RepairNote that none mention counterfeit explicitly* - you would have to put that somewhere under infringement (generally disclaimed) or failure to deliver the product ordered (mouser gives you 90 days - did that driver update occur after 90 days of you receiving those reels?) or some other thing that you can find either in their contracts, or in the applicable laws for where you run your business/they run theirs.
(* Except for the purposes of returns - they don't want you slipping counterfeit product into returns. )
In short: Sure, you can hold the supplier responsible. Good luck with that.