An Old Problem in a New Market: Public and Private Regulation of Counterfeit Consumer Goods in the Chinese C2C Market

Abstract

The emergence of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online marketplaces in China has greatly complicated the regulation of counterfeit goods. Endemic information asymmetries, strong consumer demand for counterfeits, and conflicting economic interests have challenged the effectiveness of independent government regulation and marketplace self-regulation but also created conditions for co-regulation. Using historical analysis, this thesis examines the evolution of government regulation and marketplace self-regulation of C2C counterfeits in China. It assesses the forces that have driven the shifts in the regulatory paradigm, and evaluates the complexity of Chinese online counterfeit regulation. The Chinese regulatory regime against fake goods online has been mostly shaped by the nation’s perceived economic interests and the business interests of the chief online commercial platform, Taobao. This regime, moreover, has been gradually evolving from independent government regulation and marketplace self-regulation toward co-regulation. The well-developed regulatory paradigm, nonetheless, bears an expedient character, as regulators have often used the regulation to advance certain interests over the others. The regulation of C2C online counterfeit in China also reveals the limits of and opportunities for transnational regulatory governance of online intellectual property.