But it doesn’t. It requires a USB-C port, which can support 480Mbps, 5Gbps, 10 Gbps, or some flavor of Thunderbolt. Unless I really missed something, it doesn’t require the USB-C port to support any data transfer standard.
This IS required already by the regulations of the USB Group.
If your cable are lacking those markings, you should consider them only the lowest level.
Every cable with a higher Standard should be labeled, because there will be also a chip implemented, and therefore it needs a license, which at the same time require the label.
No label = (probably) no license = probably no chip that is doing the required handling between the cable and the connected devices.
The fun thing about these kinds of rules is you won’t actually see the innovation they kill, because ‘this is illegal unless you submit it to an unpredictable multi-year bureaucratic approval process’ means projects will be abandoned at birth. You can’t see the counter-factual.
While in practice I have not had an issue with having multiple cables (and I travel quite a bit and need to recharge cameras, phones, computers, iPads). But it would certainly be simpler if I didn’t need multiple cables.
But as Mr. Evans notes, innovation if not dead, is on life support.
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Must not feed trolls …
Hmmm … is there a focus mode for that? 
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The Law, as stated already, is only about charging!
But the USB-C cable in general is capable for Datatransfer AND charging!
To my knowledge ALL of them!
The differences are within the cable (wiring, chips and so on) and the the ports of the devices.
If you connect your iPadPro with a T4 cable, you will still not get 40GB/s from that connection, because Apple is just not supporting this, and has a way slower port build in the iPad.
BUT, as I stated in my port, the USB-C Standard is in general capable of High-Speed Date Transfer, while the other available Charging Connectors are not!
So, everybody should be happy about USB-C as the future Standard, and the possibilities we all will get with the higher (depending on the manufacturer!) possible Data Transfer Rates.
If you buy a quality cable, that is licensed and equipped with the right chips, it will be labeled at the connectors.
And all my cable I bought in or from the US are, unless the are only “Charging Cable”, like the one, Apple is shipping with its devices!
“Mr. Evans” is just wrong!
This should be happening sometimes on the Internet! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
I’m not impressed by the regulation. I do hope Apple will start putting TB4 in their iPhone Pros next year, though. Seems like a natural side benefit/upsell of having to use the connector. Right now, if you use iPhone on a shoot, you need to rotate between a bunch of them if you don’t want to wait until the end of the shoot to review or edit.
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ALL of my cables are from Apple, Anker, Amazon and ALL of them have the approbate label on it, unless they are primary for charging!
But it is very easy, you can just proof it! Just link some of the Higher Quality USB-C Data Cable Amazon.com is selling, that have no label on it.
If ALL of these cables are without a label, it should be a easy doing for you, to proof your point by just showing the cable you are talking about.
And BTW, I just run a search at amazon.com, and I couldn’t see a single one without the proper labeling!
I have seen people discussing frequently a “Big Lie” (fortunately NOT on this forum!!) of a fat guy, but this does also not mean, that he has any ground to stand with this!
You should start collecting your own independent informations about an issue, instead of relying onto the complaints of some other people, who also hasn’t understand the real circumstances.
Good N8!!
I did some Googling for non-vitriolic explanations, and ran across that same Tidbits article you did above (reply #20), and another from about 10 months ago:
https://tidbits.com/2021/12/03/usbefuddled-untangling-the-rats-nest-of-usb-c-standards-and-cables/
That last article contains the important caveat:
How can you tell all these USB-C cables apart? It depends on whether computer and other device makers, cable creators, and peripheral manufacturers have marked their parts, manuals, and cable heads correctly and in accordance with the various specs that they allege to conform to.
and ends with:
In general practice, your best bet might be using old-fashioned sticky labels after purchasing a cable that fits your need or opening up a cable included with a product. Try a label maker to put flags on your cables or use zip ties that have a place to write on with a permanent marker.
This is clearly something that’s been a rather large problem for quite some time. In the last year, USB-IF seems to be working on coming up with better labeling standards. Kudos to them.
BUT…
It would seem that the phrase “higher-quality cable” in the discussion above is being conflated with “USB-IF certified”. And while those two categories probably have some overlap, I just about guarantee that they don’t describe the exact same set of products.
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Snap back to reality…
Neither iPhones nor USB-C cables are primarily targeted at users that are - or should have - „deeper knowledge“ about technical industry standards and bother to look the up.
Should we consider Apple‘s USB cables of being „only the lowest level“?
The complaint stated about USB-C cables wasn‘t only about the differences allowed for by the standard.
It was also about users being unable to tell the specs or differences between many real-world USB-C cables from reputable manufacturers/vendors (Apple being one of them) from looking at them (not the retail packaging they were initially sold in).
Even if you are well-informed about the different possible performance characteristics according to standards, cables in the real world make it unable to tell which ones they support by looking at them.
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If you refer to the 19$ charging cable, I linked above, YES! this is a high quality charging cable, with a rather low speed data transfer!
Just because this cable was sold by Apple, does not mean that you will get something different, then what you are paying for!!
If there is no symbol on the cable, you have to consider it at the lowest Standard, independent on the Manufacturer.
If there is a USB conform Label on it, you could find out almost anything important about the cable by this Symbol.
And yes, you have to know the meaning of the different signs, or you have to be able to look them up somewhere, but this is in no difference to everything that is some kind of technical!
If you do not know the Meaning of the CMD-Key on your keyboard, this is completely worthless for you, but you can’t complain that there is not the entire description of the function of this key engraved on the key.
As a user, you are entitled to inform yourself. Therefore there are a huge amount of manuals out there. And yes, it is the sole responsibility of the user to get informed about the equipment he/she is using!
An other example, what about an Lightning Cable, could you tell, by looking onto the cable the data rate, if it is working with (analog!) audio or how large will be the transferable Voltage?
This looks like the 15$ cable.
What speed are you expecting at that price? 40GB/s?
I would almost make a bet, that if you are taking a photo of the other side, there will be a UBS label.
If yes, I would guess it as a UBS 3.1 gen. 1 PD cable, with a 100W rating for the Power transfer, and up to 5GB/s data transfer.
If there is no label on the other side, I would guess for 480MB/s.
…except USB-IF certified USB 3.2 cables with 100w power delivery are absolutely available for $15. It’s not an unreasonable expectation. Your “40GB/s” number is obviously hyperbole, but 10Gbps is perfectly reasonable to expect.
Nope, and you don’t need to. Lightning is a single standard. The cable is “labeled” by the fact that it’s a single spec. The lightning connector is, effectively, the label.
Which just further reinforces the point that it’s a complete unknown if the cable isn’t labeled in some way. Your last couple of posts contain words like “I would make a bet”, “I would guess”, etc. You would guess that it’s a 100WPD cable with USB 3.1 Gen 1, but up a ways you indicate that you have to assume that it’s only USB 2.0 if it’s not labeled.
ETA:
Yikes…your guess is based on your intimate knowledge of the colors in which Amazon makes their cables available. How many people have that knowledge right off the top of their heads to decipher an unlabeled cable?
That’s the whole issue.
We’re nerds. WE have a hard time figuring it out. How well does the average person fare?
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I know only two models of the AmazonBasics cable with that color, and those are the cable I mentioned above. 
If the Cable has a 10GB Rating, it will be printed on the connector, as you can see on the example picture you linked.
You took my sentences completely out of the context, to made a point!
Is it really that low level here?
If the cable has a higher rating, it has a label!
If it has no Label, it is a PD and/or a low level cable!
And not everybody, labeling himself as a “Nerd”, has really a deeper knowledge about Computer Issues!
But sometimes this self labeling is preventing those guys from reading a manual or two, and not just looking at something and hoping that it will be self describing!
No, it is not!
I know those cable by luck, but that does not matter!
If the cable has a label on the other side, it has the rating you could “translate” acc. to the label, if there i no label, it has the lowest rating!
And, BTW, I asked to show samples from Amazon (or whatever US-Website) where you could buy a USB-C Cable with a higher Rating, that is NOT having the equivalent symbol on the connectors!
Still no picture available, right!?
IF all cable are without Label that where sold in the US, then it should be a EasyPeasy to proof that!
P.S. I am going to Bed now, so you will have around 8-10 hours, to find some pictures…
Except it isn’t, because manufacturers usually don’t bother showing both sides of their cables - so you can just claim that the label is “on the other side”, as you did above.
You effectively have a non-falsifiable position, since you’ve asserted definitionally that only low-quality (which you incorrectly use as a synonym for “non-certified”) cables will be unlabeled. When you define labeled cables as “high quality”, and unlabeled cables as “low quality”, you’ve set the terms in such a way that by definition nobody will ever be able to show you photos of a certified, unlabeled cable. It’s definitionally impossible.
But just for fun I suppose, here’s a popular cable with at least no USB-C markings anywhere in the posted photos:
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Powerline-Certified-Samsung-MacBook/dp/B07213D35X
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Dude. My dad was 91 years old. He isn’t RTFM. He isn’t a “nerd”. And he would have no clue what any cable would be. He called Safari “Oasis”. He called every screen on his Mac and his iPad a “page”.
He was a typical user. Where technology was concerned he had no clue. He just wanted, and expected, it to work. And USB does not “just work”.
He would have no idea what cable to select. And he wasn’t going to read a technical manual!
You are clueless as to what most iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, to say nothing of Windows and Android users, are like.
I have a BS in Physics and a MS in Computer Science. I’m pretty tech savvy, if I say so myself.
None of my cables haves labels. I have no idea what they are. No manual is going to to help me.
None.
Let me say it again.
None.
And I only buy top level cables. Because I am a nerd. And I know better.
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Ahh, yes!
You got me… 
Hmmmm, mayybbeee beside the factor that the „label“ is soldered on the other side of this cable…
Oh, Boy!
And you are calling yourself a „Nerd“!?!
Thank you for demonstrating my point that your position is non-falsifiable.
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This thread has thrown quite a few flags. Gonna slow mode it for a bit.
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