Law Commons^™

Gray Market Goods: A Lighter Shade Of Black Symposium: The Controversy Over The Importation Of Gray Market Goods: Is A Resolution Forthcoming, Hugh C. Hansen

Faculty Scholarship

If a street vendor offers a famous brand-name product for a substantially lower price than one would expect, the average consumer's initial reaction might be that the product had been stolen or was "hot" - a product of the black market. While such discounted goods might indeed be stolen, sophisticated consumers have come to expect similar discounts in stores and mail-order houses throughout the country on goods not from the black market but rather from the "gray market." These products, naturally enough, are called "gray market goods" or simply "gray goods." Gray goods are brand-name products manufactured abroad which bear …