Customers need to be refunded and compensated appropriately when buying fake or counterfeit goods sold by influencers - Photo: FACEBOOK
This situation is common in Vietnam where e-commerce is developing very strongly. It is very easy for users to buy products online but it is very difficult to claim compensation or complain about the products.
Bitter fruit when buying food from internet idols
Regularly surfing e-commerce platforms, Ms. N. Ngan (25 years old, Ho Chi Minh City) told about an unforgettable experience when buying food from a KOL selling online.
"That time, I ordered 20 boneless chicken feet, and they also came with a free dipping sauce. The whole family was eager to try them, but when they opened them, they smelled bad even though the expiration date was still valid. I was so scared that I had to throw them all away and didn't dare eat them anymore," Ms. Ngan recounted.
When reporting to the seller, Ms. Ngan was asked back "do you have video evidence?" and "your product has a full expiry date, all buyers say it's delicious, no one has reported like you, how could something like that happen?". Ms. Ngan had to "swallow the bitter pill" because she knew she didn't have clear evidence, and if she exposed it online, she might get the opposite reaction.
"The amount of money is not much, so I consider it a painful experience when buying from KOLs," Ms. Ngan shared. Similarly, who is "addicted" to dried chicken with lemon leaves, dried beef, fried pork with garlic..., Ms. Bich Hai (HCMC) often orders online from sales sessions of people with a large number of followers online.
"I bought it and it tasted delicious, the smell was very strong. But then I read the news that the authorities had busted many fake food shipments related to one of the places I bought it from. Now I don't know if the food I ate is really safe or not. I wonder who will protect the rights of consumers like me?", Ms. Hai worried.
Thanks to his friendly way of speaking and his firm words, T. quickly became a prominent face in the online sales livestream community. In many live streams, Mr. T. continuously introduced bird's nest products at a price of only 17,000 - 22,000 VND/jar. Mr. T. even affirmed that his pregnant wife and sick mother still use this type of bird's nest every day because the product has met ISO standards and international quality...!
At the same time, many other TikTokers also rushed to livestream selling bird's nest of the same brand, with prices ranging from 10,000 - 24,000 VND/jar with "winged" advertisements such as "containing up to 35-50% fresh bird's nest, suitable for children, pregnant women, the elderly, diabetic patients...". These flowery words made customers rush to order.
However, after a period of use, many people began to doubt the quality because the price was too cheap compared to long-standing reputable brands, and it was unclear whether the information on the label and the content advertised by TikTokers were exaggerated or not.
"The answer can only wait for the authorities to intervene, but I see that most of the users' complaints have no results. They expose the problem online but do not have sufficient and accurate evidence, and sometimes they are even sued," said Mr. Huy Hung (HCMC).
Functional foods were thrown away on the side of Nguyen Van Linh Street (HCMC), when businesses learned that the police were cracking down on counterfeit goods on a large scale - Photo: NGOC KHAI
Full service, KOLs can easily earn billions
According to the report of Metric.vn data platform on the online retail market in the first half of 2025, Eating with Mrs. Tuyet (snack food associated with the image of Mrs. Do Thi Tuyet) ranked 4th in the top 10 grocery - food brands with the highest sales, reaching nearly 131 billion VND on TikTok Shop and Shopee.
The revenue of the brand An Cung Ba Tuyet has surpassed many other famous big names in the consumer food industry such as: Glucerna (129 billion VND), Trung Nguyen (78 billion VND), Nescafe (65 billion VND), Me Ro (60.63 billion VND), Abbott (53 billion VND)...
Notably, in terms of growth rate, Eating with Mrs. Tuyet is the brand with the highest growth in the grocery - food industry with 309.7% in the first 6 months of 2025 (compared to the same period in 2024).
Ms. Tuyet currently owns the TikTok channel "Eat with Ms. Tuyet" with 2.8 million followers. At the same time, another channel named @batuyethanhvi is also being used to livestream daily sales, attracting an additional 1.7 million followers. This brand specializes in selling pre-processed snacks such as spicy boneless chicken feet, cheese chicken thighs, spicy toothpick snacks, rice paper and instant snacks...
According to Tuoi Tre's research, the food market is currently bustling with full-package processing services (OEM, ODM). Specifically, those in need only need to come up with an idea and name the brand, the service provider will provide the recipe, supply ingredients and process - produce, design, print and stick packaging, and private labels.
Attractive dishes such as spicy beef jerky, lemongrass chicken jerky, garlic-fried pork jerky, Northwest dried buffalo jerky, dried mango or pork floss... can all be produced under their own brand, in a short time. Many establishments also accept production of bird's nest, dipping sauce, vegetable jelly, candy, hangover drinks upon request... These units also provide advertising and product promotion strategies.
The ordering party only needs to worry about building a sparkling image, with sweet words about the food brand they just ordered to be processed, without having to invest in factories, equipment or a formula research team... "Just being famous is enough to sell products, making billions is easy", a person in the profession "revealed".
The above mentioned form of processing brings the advantage of saving costs, taking advantage of available technology and human resources, and flexibly adjusting output according to demand. However, there is a significant risk from depending entirely on the capacity and safety standards of the processing partner.
"With low prices, easily accessible products and custom-designed labels, many individuals quickly become food "brand owners" after just one contract signing. This situation raises questions about the quality, origin and safety of ingredients, and responsibility to consumers," a food industry expert expressed concern.
It is not easy for users to claim their rights.
According to lawyer Nguyen Hung Quan (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association), the Law on Consumer Rights Protection 2023 stipulates that buyers have the right to request business organizations and individuals to compensate for damages when products and goods have defects such as not ensuring safety; quality, uses, prices... are not consistent with the announcement, listing, advertising, introduction...
When receiving goods or products with doubts about the quality, consumers have the right to refuse to receive the goods and return them to the seller or the intermediary unit that made the delivery. If after receiving the goods and using them, they discover that the goods are of poor quality, the user has the right to contact the seller to exchange or return the purchased goods, refund the purchase or deposit, or even request compensation for actual damages (if any) and make an apology.
If the seller intentionally refuses to refund or does not admit the product quality, consumers need to collect full documentary evidence of images/videos of poor quality products, invoices, documents, purchase transactions, transfer orders, and feedback information. If necessary, samples can be sent to licensed agencies and organizations for quality testing to have a legal basis for filing a lawsuit.
However, according to many experts in the industry, the process of preparing convincing evidence is quite cumbersome for consumers. "Few consumers go to buy food, drinks, or medicine without thinking about having enough evidence to sue for counterfeit goods," an expert affirmed.
Take advantage of the platform tools to protect your interests
Speaking with Tuoi Tre, a representative of the e-commerce platform Shopee said that it has deployed the "Report violating products" function for buyers to report products that do not meet standards or violate the platform's regulations.
Users can easily find and use this function right on the product page or in Shopee's support section. In addition to the reporting function, Shopee representatives said there are other measures to protect users such as: allowing buyers to check the goods before receiving them; return the goods and receive a refund if the product is not as described or has problems...
Meanwhile, Lazada representatives recommend that users pay close attention to the origin of the seller and the product; product price, read comments/reviews from previous buyers; contact the seller directly to ask questions about related issues...
"We also encourage shoppers to track their order status on the app, email and SMS. In case they detect products that show signs of violation on the platform or need help, users can contact the platform directly," said a Lazada representative.
The product was determined to be fake and has been processed - Photo: FACEBOOK
"Waiting for trouble, cheeks are already swollen"
Recently, many scandals regarding the quality of food products and food supplements have been exposed. A typical case is the case of "Gia Dinh Hai Sen" of Le Van Hai (owner of TikTok channel with more than 2.6 million followers) who was prosecuted for selling more than 800,000 products.
Of which, over 100,000 boxes of "Hai Be Appetite Syrup" were determined to be fake when the vitamin and mineral content was only less than 70% of the declared amount. Previously, Quang Linh Vlogs, Hang Du Muc and Miss Thuy Tien were also arrested in connection with Kera candy, a product that was ordered to be manufactured and then advertised widely online for sale, making illegal profits.
Although the dishonest businessmen have been caught up in the law, the rights of many consumers - the victims in these cases - are not protected. Not only are consumers not protected, even businesses are crying over the rampant proliferation of counterfeit goods.
Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Mr. Huynh Duc Trong - Director of Khanh Hoa Salanganes Nest Company (HCMC branch) - said that over the past decades, businesses have had to deal with countless cases of counterfeiting and imitation. Businesses have spent a lot of money on lawsuits, but the lawsuits have dragged on while counterfeit and fake brands are still rampant.
"Because the profit from bird's nest products is so attractive, many people are willing to set up new companies, mass-producing products with different labels. "When a brand is denounced by customers, they immediately switch to another name to continue doing business, and profits are still high," said Mr. Trong.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/mua-hang-tren-cho-mang-may-nho-rui-chiu-20250801092058848.htm
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