‘Get real, don’t buy fakes’: Fashion fakes and flawed policy – the problem with taking a consumer-responsibility approach to reducing the ‘problem’ of counterfeiting

Joanna Large*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent years have seen increasing concern in relation to intellectual property crime and as a result, pressure has mounted to tackle the ‘problem’ of counterfeiting. However, despite an increasing recognition of the responsibility of public policing agencies, a strong consumer-responsibility approach has emerged. This relies on the assumption that if consumers are ‘educated’ about the ‘dangers of buying fakes’ they will refrain from doing so – resulting in a reduced demand and thus, a reduced supply. This article, which is based upon a mixed-methods empirical study investigating people’s attitudes to, and consumption of, counterfeit fashion goods, seeks to problematize the responsibility being placed upon consumers and argues that fundamentally, this is a flawed approach for anti-counterfeiting policy. This article argues that not only does this approach fail to understand consumer attitudes, but it fails to understand the nature and consumption of fashion more generally.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)169-185
Number of pages17
JournalCriminology and Criminal Justice
Volume15
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 2015

Keywords

  • Counterfeiting
  • fashion
  • harm
  • intellectual property crime

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