This was heard at this afternoon’s conference to summarize the work of 2023 and deploy tasks for 2024 held by the National Steering Committee for Anti-smuggling, Counterfeit Goods and Trade Fraud (the National Steering Committee 389).
According to Deputy Director Nguyen Tien Dat of the Ho Chi Minh City Market Surveillance Department, in the context of many economic difficulties and challenges, smuggling, illegal trading of smuggled goods, banned goods, production and business of counterfeit goods, goods of unknown origin, poor quality products and unsafe food are still on the rise despite efforts made by departments and agencies which are members of Steering Committee 389 of Ho Chi Minh City. Many people re-committed their wrongdoings with many tricks to trade banned and counterfeit goods.
It is worth noting that the business of e-cigarettes has increased due to the demand from many young people. Bad guys have taken advantage of social networks and e-commerce platforms to sell this new generation tobacco product rampantly.
Concluding the conference, Vice Chairman Nguyen Van Dung of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, assessed that smugglers and those who have committed trade frauds and sold counterfeit goods in Ho Chi Minh City use so increasingly sophisticated tricks that responsible agencies must transfer to police for further investigation and criminal prosecution. From the beginning of the year to now, the authorities have prosecuted 27 cases, an increase of 92.85 percent over the same period last year.
Regarding the direction and tasks for 2024, Vice Chairman Nguyen Van Dung emphasized all departments and agencies should promote communication to raise awareness and change people's consumption habits. E-commerce is booming; people can use smartphones to buy goods but they are also easy to buy counterfeit goods because they are very similar to real goods.
Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Dung also informed that while real goods have not yet been available in the city market, counterfeit goods have already existed. It is very difficult for the authorities to find real goods to compare. Therefore, he proposed that press agencies need to regularly study and update the information of real goods for consumers to avoid buying goods of unknown origin.
On this occasion, the Steering Committee 389 of Ho Chi Minh City awarded a commendation letter from the Deputy Prime Minister to Tan Binh District Police. Simultaneously, the committee awarded its certificate of merit to three collectives and six individuals with outstanding achievements in combating smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeit goods in 2023.
In the first six months of 2024, the Ho Chi Minh City Market Surveillance Department discovered 54 violations related to e-commerce, and temporarily detained more than 14,000 e-cigarettes products, accessories, electronic goods, food, fashion products, and gold jewelry worth more than VND4.3 billion. Additionally, inspectors have imposed administrative fines of VND1.18 billion to violators.
Typically, on March 13, market surveillance team No. 3 coordinated with the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05 under the Ministry of Public Security) to discover the household business of Le Quoc Thai selling more than 10,000 various e-cigarette products, accessories, and e-cigarette flavors of unknown origin, worth more than VND3.7 billion.
