Hard to control fake face masks during Covid-19 pandemic

Many labels were seized by competent forces in Hanoi City in early of April 2020.

Since the beginning of February, the Market Management force has inspected and supervised more than 7,965 cases and sanctioned goods of more than VND 3.66 billion, with the violated goods mainly related to surgical masks and hand sanitiser gel.

In Hanoi, Unit 1 of Market Management, Hanoi Market Management Department coordinated with Unit 7, PC03, Hanoi City Police, to inspect the business premises of Duc Anh Medical Equipement Trading and Service Co., Ltd. (located at No.5 178 lane, Tay Son street, Dong Da).

As a result, more than 18,000 items of isolation clothes, glasses, surgical masks and other medical supplies were seized by competent forces.

Notably, the force also seized many labels and many semi-finished goods such as isolation clothes, glasses and protective gloves.

In Ho Chi Minh city, Market Management Unit 9, Market Management Department of Ho Chi Minh City in collaboration with Unit 7, Division of Economic Police, Ho Chi Minh City Police and the Criminal Investigation Police Team on economic and order, District 9 Police inspected Song Thien Trading and Production Co., Ltd. (Song Thien Company) led by Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh as director located at 254/17K Duong Dinh Hoi, Tang Nhon Phu B Ward, District 9.

Through inspection, the group discovered that Song Thien Company had signs of administrative violations in production of goods which were masks with packaging forged with the trader names and addresses of other traders.

Besides these results, the task of Covid-19 pandemic prevention of the forces encountered many difficulties due to the impact of the pandemic and the increase in demand for pandemic prevention equipment while the supply of goods is limited, leading to scarcity of goods for pandemic prevention, especially surgical masks.

According to the General Department of Market Management, taking advantage of the increase in demand, some people increased their production and business activities, mixing medical equipment and surgical masks which are of low quality and fake goods with unknown origin.

On the other hand, the legal framework for origin of goods has not been completed, so the inspection and handling of this type of fraud also faces many shortcomings and difficulties.

At the same time, the issue of counterfeit goods, fraudulent origin and trademark infringement is legalised by many methods and distributed through various and flexible consumption channels, especially online, causing many difficulties for the inspection, control and prevention of violations.

In particular for the traceability of goods, if the enforcement agency did not have clear evidence and did not seize any evidence or conducted inspection, the detection of violations would be very difficult. Once it was circulated on the market, counterfeit goods are often mixed with authentic goods with clear origin. Thus the detection of violations faced many difficulties.

In addition, consumer demand through e-commerce is increasing, the work to detect and prevent counterfeit goods on the internet faces many difficulties and limitations due to a lack of online tools, regulations and sanctions which have inadequacies.