this! 100 times this!
In a totally unregulated market consumers have very little access to information to make a proper decision. some markets should not be free
EDIT: alternative is to limit size of companies so there is proper competition
I commented something similar on an article here about a year ago, and people had some good points[0]:
> Heavy metal poisoning may take years to show effects.
> Shoddily made laptop chargers may be a fire/shock hazard that kill in 100/1,000,000 instead of 1/1,000,000 cases.
> Not every dangerous counterfeit is immediately obvious as such.
> If you're slathering it all over your body but you have no idea where or how it was made, do you suppose that you might suffer from deferred regret at some point in the future?
So, yeah, if the counterfeit is just as good, then fantastic. If it's not, that's a problem. If it's not in a non-obvious way that affects health or safety, that's a big problem.
You just assume that the product is shit and never buy it again. But the user base is large. With the swath of fake reviews on the site you can’t judge by ratings either.
To me, the real victims are the original product sellers.
For items with no safety implication, that is probably true.
But, take the case of USB chargers. If the name-brand bursts into flames at a rate of 1/1000000 and the fake 1/1000, most consumers will never know they received a fake. But, for those that have their house burst into flames, the fake was not worth the savings.
