On March 19 2010, the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV) issued a notification to request that local Departments of Health in all cities and provinces of Vietnam step up the inspection and supervision of cosmetics to prevent counterfeits and illegally imported cosmetics from being circulated in the market. Accordingly, the local Departments of Health are coordinating with 127 local and central government agencies to inspect and supervise distribution and after-sale activities in the cosmetics industry. Truong Quoc Cuong, director of the DAV stated that, in this campaign, the authorities will monitor manufacturing and importing enterprises, cosmetics market places and border markets which are now known for the distribution of counterfeit and illegally imported products.
In fact, counterfeit goods are a plague on the domestic trade of cosmetic products. Imitations of international brand name products appear in the market very quickly, especially skin cream and shower gel and have flooded the market for a long time. Even in Hanoi, many large cosmetics distributors publicly display and sell both genuine, well-known cosmetics brands as well as counterfeits on streets such as Bach Mai, Hang Ngang, Hang Dao, Kham Thien, Cau Giay and Giang Vo.
Therefore, the DAV has announced that the purpose of this campaign is to tighten up the cosmetics market and prevent the circulation of counterfeit cosmetics and cosmetics with unknown origins. The authorities will apply the highest penalties to individuals and entities violating laws in the production and trade of cosmetics. In particular, according to the notification, inspections and supervision must strictly follow the Regulations on Cosmetics Management under Decision no 48/2007/QD-BYT dated December 31 2007 and Guiding Correspondence no 11110/QLD-CL dated October 06 2009.
Since the notification, Vietnam Business News has reported that on March 30 2010, Ho Chi Minh City authorities seized more than 3,000 imported cosmetic products without any supporting documents. On March 31 this year, Ho Chi Minh City market inspectors discovered a large quantity of fake fabric softeners and shampoo at a factory in the city's outskirts. Officials seized over 500 litres of fabric softener, infringing packaging, production machinery and 125 kilograms of materials of unknown origin.
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| Thomas J Treutler and Le Thi Hong Tuyen |
Tilleke & Gibbins Consultants Limited
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