March 09, 2012
The NYT discovers a real case of counterfeiting in an article about a wine dealer who was arrested for selling millions of dollars of fake wine. This one is worth noting because it is in fact actual counterfeiting, as opposed to the cases of selling unauthorized copies that are often wrongly identified as “counterfeits” in the media.
The difference is that in a case of actual counterfeiting the buyer is defrauded. They think that they are getting something that they actually are not getting. The most obvious case is with fake currency, but counterfeits can also be works of art that are sold as being produced by famous artists or a case like this one, where wines are falsely labeled to lead buyers into thinking they are getting rare and expensive vintages.
By contrast, when a buyer gets an Apple-like product or a designer-type handbag at a fraction of the standard price, they generally know that they are not getting the brand product. In these cases, the buyer is making a decision that they would rather pay less and get an imitation rather than the brand product.
In the case of unauthorized copies, the owner of the brand may have a legal case against the seller for violations of intellectual property, however the buyer has benefited from the transaction. Therefore, the buyer has no reason to cooperate with law enforcement in cracking down on the sellers. By contrast, in a case of actual counterfeiting, the buyer is the victim of fraud and has every reason to cooperate with law enforcement.
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