I don’t have a photo of the packaging, but from what I saw (at a glance) they were similar to the packaging of CMC- and Prodisc-manufactured discs.
That’s not good enough. Similar doesn’t mean anything. Did it say AZO on the package?
If you see any Verbatim packaging that does not explicitly say AZO on the outside, then the media is not manufactured by Mitsubishi, but that doesn’t mean it’s fake.
If the package says AZO but the media inside does not have MCC or MKM media codes, then that would be fake media.
This is just lower-grade media, intended for a different market.
Verbatim also produces a Value Series of media which is manufactured by Ritek with Ritek media codes, that was previously only sold in Latin America, but is now in the states. Once again, the packages for this media do not say AZO on the outside.
It’s obvious that due to economic pressure, Verbatim is diversifying their range of outsourced manufacturers. This is something we’ll just have to get used to.