Revealing tricks of producing fake essential oils and supplementary foods

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Essential oil was confiscated by the Police on September 29, 2023

Destroying a production establishment of fake goods worth VND100 billion

By collecting information on the area coupled with the effective application of professional measures, Tan Binh District Police, Ho Chi Minh City discovered MIN HAPIAN Co., Ltd, owned by Nguyen Thi Kim Ha, born in 1992, residing in Hiep Thanh Hamlet, Quang Thanh commune, Chau Duc district, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province (as Director), was suspected of producing and trading counterfeit essential oils for electronic cigarettes and supplementary foods at three places in Tan Binh district.

The Standing Office of the National Steering Committee 389 said, that on September 29, 2023, Tan Binh District Police established a secret reconnaissance project number 2023B to investigate the case.

Then, the reconnaissance force continued profiling and discovered Dat Thong Co. Ltd headquartered at No. 83B. Dung Van An Street, An Phu Ward, Thu Duc City, managed by Ha. Both companies sell essential oils and supplementary foods of which their origin is the US but they are actually bottled, labeled, and produced in Vietnam. The production process has a detailed and strict circle from packaging, and anti-counterfeit stamps to expiry date.

Through the investigation, the police had enough basis to conclude that HAPIAN Company and related subjects had acts of illicit production and trade in fake goods, severely affecting human health.

Searching the production establishment located on Tran Van Danh Street, the authorities discovered many cartons of finished supplementary food, electronic cigarette equipment (VAPE), vaping essential oils, and many other related items. Nguyen Minh Khanh, born in 1991, residing in An Phu ward, Thuan An City, Binh Duong, declared that he was assigned to manage HAPIAN Company and Dat Thong Company on behalf of Ha and he was unable to present invoices and documents related to the above goods.

Expanding the investigation, the Police continued to urgently search the remaining warehouses of HAPIAN Company, seizing 6,266 boxes of essential oils; 370 kg of essential oil labels from many foreign brands; 2,600 electronic cigarette devices (VAPE), and many machines and equipment. The total estimated value is VND100 billion.

The suspects declared that all the seized goods were purchased freely on the market, without invoices or documents, and were then stamped with expiry dates to create finished products and hide them at the above warehouses to sell to customers.

From the collected evidence and documents, the Police Investigation Agency, Tan Binh District Police issued a decision to prosecute the case and Nguyen Minh Khanh for the crime of "Producing and trading in counterfeit goods" specified in Clause 3, Article 192, Penal Code 2015 with a prison sentence of 7 to 15 years and continued the investigation.

On October 10, 2023, the Police Investigation Agency, Tan Binh District Police urgently arrested Nguyen Minh Khanh to serve the investigation of production and trading of counterfeit goods.

Authorities and businesses are facing difficulties

Recently, at a workshop discussing solutions to prevent fake cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and supplementary foods organized by the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee 389, the majority of local authorities said that smugglers have taken advantage of postal services, domestic and international express delivery, home delivery services bring contraband, fake and poor-quality goods to parcels warehouse, this is an unclear boundary for determining the responsibility for infringing goods, making it difficult for the authorities.

On the other hand, genuine businesses also face a lot of pressure in market competition when pirated and counterfeit goods and goods infringing on intellectual property are produced and sold. Therefore, to protect the brand, each business should invest in its own infrastructure, and technology, improve production capacity, and product quality, and apply technology solutions to protect its products from counterfeiting or imitation, such as using traceability stamps, changing designs or packaging by printing identification marks on the box, each product unit has a different number to identify and check information via smart software, the content inside is information about the product, batch number, production date, expiry date, serial number of the medicine box in the same batch.

Hai Phong Customs seized containers of tortoise shells, cosmetics, and used electronic devices

Local authorities also proposed many practical solutions such as unifying product management through the barcode system, promulgating a national system like European countries, and including regulations in the Pharmacy Law and Circulars on heavy sanctions for pharmacies and agents who assist in counterfeiting through distribution networks of drugs, cosmetics, and health protection foods, and building a roadmap to apply ISO 21976:2020 “Packaging — Tamper verification features for medicinal product”, provides guidance for the application, use and check of tamper verification features to the packaging of medicinal products and thereafter requesting mandatory implementation for pharmaceutical manufacturers in Vietnam.