Louis Vuitton in the bazaar: Negotiating the value of counterfeit goods in Shanghai's Xiangyang market

Abstract

Abstract: Much work on counterfeiting takes the perspective of brand holders and focuses on strategies for restricting the infringement of their intellectual property rights (IPR). This article takes a different approach. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a market bazaar in Shanghai, the article examines the way in which market participants negotiate the value of counterfeit goods. Brand holders attempt to control the valuation of branded goods, which are usually traded in fixed-price markets. Counterfeit goods, on the other hand, are subject to intensive bargaining in Chinese bazaar-type markets. Identifying different types of value that market participants refer to in their attempts to manipulate prices, the article argues that counterfeit goods and their markets create a more active role for both vendors and consumers in negotiating, denaturalising and temporarily re-fixing the value of goods.