Strengthening market management: Contributing to protecting consumer rights

According to the assessment of the Steering Committee against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods (Steering Committee 389) of the province, in general, the commodity market in the first months of this year in Binh Thuan has been normal. The situation of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in the province's sea areas has been well controlled and production and business activities at sea have not raised any suspicious issues. However, on land, the situation of trading and transporting prohibited and smuggled goods has shown signs of increasing, especially for some items: cosmetics, pre-packaged processed foods, frozen foods, textiles, etc.

Market management forces coordinate with police forces to seize smuggled cigarettes. Photo: N. Luan

Through the implementation of tasks in the first quarter of 2025, the functional forces of the province (including the Provincial Police, Provincial Border Guard, Tax Department, Specialized Inspectorate, etc.) have focused on inspecting and handling hundreds of violations. Specifically, 183 cases of buying, selling, and transporting prohibited and smuggled goods and 132 cases of commercial fraud or tax fraud, 2 cases of buying and selling counterfeit goods have been detected and seized, thereby collecting more than 22.7 billion VND for the state budget, criminally prosecuting 140 cases/219 subjects. The Market Management force alone has inspected 33 cases and detected 31 violations, handling dozens of cases with a total amount of money paid to the state budget of more than 580 million VND. In addition, there are some infringing goods worth 592.17 million VND.

In the current situation, the Provincial Steering Committee 389 believes that although the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods has achieved remarkable results, there are still problems, especially smuggling, fraud of goods origin, goods violating intellectual property rights on the internet environment... Therefore, the Provincial Steering Committee 389 requires member agencies to identify this work as an important and regular political task. At the same time, strengthen coordination, connection, and information sharing between units and functional forces in the performance of public duties to improve the effectiveness of prevention, suppression, and fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods...

Regarding this issue, the Department of Health has recently requested that the departments, branches and functional units of the province coordinate in the work of preventing fake and poor quality food that potentially poses a risk to the health of consumers. As for the Department of Industry and Trade, it coordinates and directs its affiliated units to inspect and review e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce sales applications, e-commerce sales websites, etc. to detect foods that have not been declared and remove information on e-commerce platforms. Similarly, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinates and directs relevant affiliated units to review food advertisements, especially advertisements on social networks, to promptly prevent and strictly handle cases of advertising that violate the law.

Next, the Department of Health also requested relevant departments and units to coordinate in implementing a number of contents towards improving the effectiveness of state management in the fields of pharmaceuticals and food safety. Accordingly, it requested the Provincial Police to preside over and coordinate with competent agencies to investigate and handle cases of organizations and individuals violating the law related to the production and trade of fake drugs and food in Binh Thuan. Meanwhile, the Department of Industry and Trade presides over and coordinates with the Department of Health and relevant units to strengthen market management, organize inspections and handle the production and trade of fake, smuggled, unknown origin and poor quality drugs and food. On the other hand, it also strengthens the inspection of business activities through e-commerce platforms, online shopping applications, multi-level business models related to pharmaceuticals and functional foods, thereby contributing to protecting the health as well as the rights of consumers...

Recently, the Provincial People's Committee has also issued the Regulations on coordination of state management on consumer rights protection in Binh Thuan and officially took effect from May 10, 2025. In which, the Department of Industry and Trade is assigned to advise the Provincial People's Committee to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team on consumer rights protection for cases under the jurisdiction of many agencies and units or of a serious, urgent nature, affecting security and order. Thereby promptly preventing and strictly handling violations of the law to protect consumer rights and create a healthy business environment in the locality...

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/tang-cuong-quan-ly-thi-truong-gop-phan-bao-ve-quyen-loi-nguoi-tieu-dung-130025.html