The gold jewelry market is in a stir

Many gold jewelry products showed signs of counterfeiting famous brands. Photo: ST

Selling gold suspected of counterfeiting the brand

Continuously in recent times, the Market Surveillance forces of the southern provinces and cities have simultaneously inspected many gold trading enterprises, discovering many suspicions in the sale of gold jewelry products.

Specifically, on April 4, 2024, Market Surveillance Teams No. 1, No. 6, Tien Giang Market Surveillance Department unexpectedly inspected 4 gold jewelry production and trading enterprises in Chau Thanh district, My Tho city, Cai Lay town, Go Cong town in Tien Giang province. At the time of inspection, all four establishments trading gold jewelry of all kinds had business registration certificates. Among them, 2 enterprises produce 30 items of 14K plain ring and 52 sets of diamond rings without declaring the applicable standards following the regulations.

With 2 gold jewelry businesses including 12 items of dragon head carvings, gold content 600 taels (total weight of 60 taels) and 10 necklaces, gold content 980 taels (total weight of 20 taels) with labels that do not contain all the contents on product labels (no product names); 12 carvings in the shape of a pixiu, gold content 610 (total weight of 5.2 taels) without product label. Based on the listed prices of businesses, the total value of infringing evidence was determined to be nearly VND 1.5 billion. The inspection team made inspection records for the 4 above enterprises to continue to verify and complete administrative violation sanction records as stipulated.

Previously, on April 2, the E-commerce Task Force, General Department of Market Surveillance coordinated with Market Surveillance Team No. 3, Market Surveillance Department of An Giang Province to conduct a surprise inspection of Kim Huong Dinh gold shop in Long Xuyen City (An Giang). At the time of inspection, the working group recorded that the goods on sale included many gold and white gold products. In each product tray, there were alternating gold jewelry products showing signs of counterfeiting from famous brands, such as Chanel, Cartier, LV, Bulgari... in the form of earrings, bracelets, rings, and necklaces.

Not only in the southern provinces, recently, the Professional Technique Department of Market Surveillance simultaneously inspected 3 gold and silver trading points in Hanoi, including Phuc Thanh Hanoi One Member LLC (Long Bien), Bao Tin Lan Vy Gold Limited and Chien Minh Gold and Silver Company Limited are located in Cau Giay. During the initial inspection, the authorities recorded thousands of gold, silver, and stone jewelry products at each display store. Among them, some metal jewelry products are necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings with the names of famous brands such as Chanel, Hermes, LV...

Focusing on stabilizing the gold market

Working with the Market Surveillance force, the owners of the establishments presented documents proving business conditions and invoices for the authorities to compare with the goods sold at the store. On that basis, the working groups of the Professional Technique Department of Market Surveillance are continuing to work to prove the legality of the goods for sale.

According to the Market Surveillance Agency, during the inspection of gold business activities in some provinces and cities, the Market Surveillance force initially identified several violations related to product labels, price listings, violations of business conditions, signs of infringement of industrial property rights, violations in trading goods on e-commerce platforms...

From the above violation, inspection of gold metal products will continue to be strengthened from now until the end of 2024 across the country, especially in strengthening quality management, contributing to gold market stabilization.

Notably, among the cases of inspection as mentioned above, many cases were discovered through monitoring, collecting and verifying information in the e-commerce environment in the form of upload sale posts and live stream via Facebook and TikTok accounts. Previously, implementing the Anti-counterfeit and consumer protection on e-commerce project by 2025, the Market Surveillance force has stepped up the work of monitoring and supervising the business of accounts on e-commerce platforms, especially on Facebook and TikTok platforms.

For example, for Kim Huong Dinh gold shop, after a long period of monitoring, the E-commerce Task Force of the Professional Techniques Department, General Department of Market Surveillance discovered a Facebook account "Kim Huong Dinh Gold Shop" with a green tick that was regularly livestreamed posting gold and platinum metal jewelry products for sale. Detecting some signs of violations in goods trading on the Facebook account, the Working Group quickly established a process server’s statement of truth and then conducted an investigation and verification of the business location for inspection.

According to the leader of the General Department of Market Surveillance, these are typical cases that the Market Surveillance force will check in 2024 to effectively deploy the contents of the Anti-counterfeit Goods and Consumer Protection on E-commerce Project. In particular, the implementation aims to effectively implement the directive Prime Minister's proposal on strengthening gold market management measures. The inspection of violations against gold products, especially on e-commerce platforms, will continue to be promoted by the Market Surveillance force in the future.