NO ROLE FOR CONSCIOUS CONSUMER IN THE BATTLE AGAINST COUNTERFEITING. A SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACH

Counterfeiting is a constantly growing phenomenon with economic, social and political implications. Considering consumers’ awareness, the counterfeit market includes two sub-markets, the deceptive market and the non-deceptive market. In the first case consumers are cheated since they believe to have purchased an original product, when in fact it is a fake. In the second case, consumers are fully aware they have bought a knock-off. The paper takes the form of a socio-cultural analysis linked to the price/quality relation to answer the question if it is in the interest of conscious consumer to have a role in the fight against counterfeiting. What emerges is that conscious consumer has not such an interest, therefore the only possibility to succeed in the fight against counterfeiting is to make consumers aware of the dangers related to it and to strengthen the legislative framework.