“The smuggling and trading of counterfeit goods and infringing upon intellectual property rights in 2021 has not decreased,” said Nguyen Hung Anh, head of the Anti-smuggling Investigation Agency.

Fakes of famous brands include clothes, footwear, handbags, suitcases and watches.

Customs agencies have discovered many cases with large value, but these are a small number of the total number of cases.

On December 10, 2020, the agency, joining forces with the Sai Gon Port Customs Sub-department, examined a consignment of goods owned by Tan Cang – Tay Ninh JSC and found counterfeit goods bearing LV, Gucci and Nike brand names, worth VND650 million.

On November 27, 2020, the department cooperated with Moc Bai International Border Gate customs agency to examine a transshipment goods consignment in four containers owned by Swift Freight Logistics.

The products were Nike and Adidas counterfeited footwear and clothes. There were also handbags and belts labelled as Hermes, LV, Chanel and Gucci products. The consignment was worth VND1.6 billion.

Nguyen Duc Le from the General Directorate of Market Surveillance said the real LV and Chanel products have high value of between tens of millions of dong and hundreds of millions of dong.

Meanwhile, consumers can buy products bearing the same brands from social networks at just hundreds of thousands of dong. Consumers know they are fake, but still buy them.

As such, they inadvertently lend a hand to institutions and individuals who make illicit profits, infringe on others’ rights and the legal benefits of rights holders.

“Eighty percent of consumers know they buy counterfeit products or products with unclear origin,” Le said.

Vu Thi Kim Hanh, Chair of the Vietnam Business Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods, pointed out that many counterfeit goods appear in the year-end sale season.

“Counterfeited goods are advertised and sold recklessly on social networks, which causes big losses to authentic manufacturers,” Hanh said.

She has asked appropriate agencies to regularly examine goods, impose heavy fines on violators, and promote communication campaigns against counterfeit goods. Counterfeit goods and intellectual property infringement are threatening the production of genuine enterprises.

Dang Van Dung Steering Committee 389 noted that it’s difficult to fight against counterfeit goods because of the promised profits, high demand and limited production capability of domestic enterprises. In many cases, civil servants even lend a hand to criminals. The sanctions against violators are not heavy enough to deter them.

However, he said the coordination between forces in the fight against smuggling and trade fraud has improved, especially since the day the Government set up Committee 389. 

Luong Bang

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