Fear of counterfeit goods, how to protect consumers?

Recently, when the news about the fake milk powder production line has not yet cooled down, local authorities have continued to discover and destroy production and trading lines of medicine, functional foods, MSG, seasoning powder, fake cooking oil or bean sprouts soaked in chemicals, causing public outrage.

Phu Tho Province police have just busted a large-scale factory producing fake cooking oil, MSG, seasoning powder and broth powder. Photo: Internet.

Currently, counterfeit goods are a burning issue and a constant concern for consumers. In particular, the recent series of counterfeit production lines being dismantled has made consumers feel even more insecure and confused about the quality of goods.

Ms. Tuong Van - an accountant at a business in Ha Tinh City shared: "In addition to food and essential goods used in daily life, every month, I spend a large amount of money on cosmetics and functional foods. Although when buying, I always research carefully, choose famous branded goods and choose reputable places, put my trust in buying, but in reality, I myself cannot verify whether the goods are real or fake and am always worried about using fake goods. Therefore, we hope that the authorities will strictly check the source of goods circulating on the market."

As for the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh (Van Yen Ward, Ha Tinh City), because she is raising a young child, the recent information about fake milk has made her even more concerned about the quality of milk on the market. Ms. Hoai expressed: “Although I do not buy milk from the companies that produce fake milk that have just been exposed, I do not know whether the products I am giving my child are genuine or not. Milk is a product directly related to the development of children, each box of milk for children is a belief and expectation for children to grow up every day. However, I cannot avoid the worry of “paying real money - buying fake goods”.

A carton of milk identified as fake by police in the case of a fake milk ring produced by Rance Pharma and Hacofood Group. Photo VTV.

Buying counterfeit goods not only causes financial losses, but more worryingly, the harmful effects on health when used, especially products such as medicine, milk, food, spices. Not only affecting the economy and health of consumers, counterfeit goods also disrupt the market, negatively affect the brands of legitimate businesses, creating barriers to economic development.

In the face of recent counterfeiting incidents, many consumers have also changed and become more strict in their shopping, such as choosing to buy at large supermarket chains, reputable businesses, reducing industrial foods, carefully checking product information and feedback from customers who have purchased the product... However, consumers also believe that professional counterfeit production lines, sophisticated counterfeiting and imitation methods make it very difficult to distinguish from genuine goods. Conventional solutions such as carefully checking packaging and barcodes are sometimes very difficult to identify because counterfeit packaging is identical to genuine goods, so the most important thing is still the drastic involvement of functional forces.

After recent cases of counterfeit goods being discovered, many consumers have changed and chosen to shop at reputable establishments.

According to the Ha Tinh Market Management Department, the production and trading of counterfeit goods is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complicated to deceive consumers, especially in the context of strong development of e-commerce, which is becoming a big challenge for authorities in management, detection and handling.

In Ha Tinh, currently, production and business activities are mainly small-scale, without large warehouses or production facilities, so the market is basically stable. However, there are still counterfeit goods of major brands such as fashion clothes, shoes, handbags, etc. on the market.

According to the Ha Tinh Market Management Department, the management and handling of counterfeit goods is currently facing some difficulties and limitations, especially in the handling process. Determining violations and distinguishing between counterfeit and fake goods is still complicated, requiring professional appraisal conclusions, but the current appraisal process is slow, the cost is high while the value of the goods is low.

In order to contribute to preventing counterfeit goods, Ha Tinh Market Management Department recommends that, along with the inspection and handling work of the authorities, consumers need to carefully check product information before buying, prioritize buying at reputable addresses, with invoices and documents. When there are signs of suspicion, it is necessary to reflect and denounce to the authorities. For enterprises, legitimate production facilities in general and facilities with counterfeit products in particular, there must be coordination with the authorities in handling.

Market management forces check goods circulating on the market.

Mr. Tran Huu Hanh - Chairman of the Provincial Consumer Protection Association said that in order to protect consumers from counterfeit and fake goods, the relevant agencies need to develop a plan for the list of goods to be sampled for testing, especially self-declared products and products that are not famous brands. The Market Management Agency needs to inspect each field of goods, compare with invoices and documents, if there are no invoices and documents, it must be handled according to the law and samples must be sent to the relevant agencies for appraisal, quality inspection of goods, and thorough handling, not simply confiscation and destruction of goods.

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/noi-lo-hang-gia-lam-sao-de-bao-ve-nguoi-tieu-dung-post287322.html