[slowmovintarget]

How? It seems like any legal framework for attempting to prevent something like this would only have worse unintended effects.

For example: every sale of a brand or a company has to go through a government committee (bribes, kickbacks, friction...). Restrictions on product changes: the new owner isn't allowed to improve the products, or stop producing older products when newer ones sell better, even if the newer ones are better. Can't shift manufacturing to China? Can't shift it out of the U.S.? How do you get such laws to apply everywhere (like Italian or French companies selling out to China)?

The least harmful solution I can see is publicizing this B.S. and then having consumers speak with their wallets and dropping those brands.

We've had to do that with so many brands. Aveeno used to make an oat and almond body wash that was amazing. It really helped the skin heal, feel soft, and still cleaned well. They got bought out. Boom... ammonium laurel sulfate... no oat, no almond, just fragrance, just like every other cheap body wash, and now it was bad for the skin. Same for their shave gel, same for dozens of other products.

I don't know how we consumers stop it short of buying the product and not the brand. I'm skeptical of government being able to do anything about this phenomenon that isn't much worse overall.

[ungreased0675]

I don’t actually know what a good government policy would be. I don’t want to add friction to normal business practices.

But I’d also like to make it unprofitable to plunder well-established brands. It seems like a form of dishonesty, to sell an intentionally inferior product under a brand that was previously quality. Consumers eventually figure it out and move elsewhere, but the pirates have already cashed out by then.