Counterfeit goods target vulnerable groups
Recently, functional agencies have discovered many cases of production and trading of fake drugs, milk and functional foods on a large scale in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Thanh Hoa and many other localities. The worrying point is that counterfeit products mainly target vulnerable consumer groups such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly and patients.
According to Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, violations are becoming increasingly sophisticated when subjects take advantage of loopholes in management, the mechanism of self-declaration of products and the psychology of preferring foreign goods, lack of information of a part of consumers. Many closed organizational lines from production, completing legal documents to distribution, false advertising to legalize goods before putting them on the market.
In order to prevent this situation, the Ministry of Health has issued a document requesting ministries, branches, and localities to strengthen inspection and tighten food safety management.
If previously counterfeit goods mainly circulated through traditional distribution channels, now e-commerce and social networks are becoming a faster, wider and more difficult-to-control environment for counterfeit goods to spread.
Reality shows that after international warnings appeared about some food and infant milk products that are not safe, domestic management agencies had to request a review of product announcements, notices of stopping use, recalls, and at the same time request e-commerce management agencies to coordinate with online trading floors to remove information and stop trading in warned products.
Dr. Chu Quoc Thinh - Acting Director of the Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health) - said that the Department continuously issues documents requesting to strengthen control of functional food business activities on e-commerce platforms, and at the same time strictly handle acts of false advertising of health protection foods on the online environment, social networks and online video platforms.
We cannot just chase after handling, we need to block from the root.
Data from the Market Management force, in the first 4 months of 2026, this force inspected more than 14,100 cases, handled more than 12,300 violations, collected administrative fines of over 232.9 billion VND; the total value of violating goods confiscated and destroyed reached nearly 149 billion VND.
These figures reflect the strong efforts of functional agencies, but also show that counterfeit goods still have "land to live", especially in areas that directly affect public health.
To effectively prevent it, experts believe that many synchronous solutions are needed. First of all, tighten post-inspection for high-risk commodity groups such as health protection foods, nutritional products for young children, imported goods and self-declared product groups.
Second, increase the responsibility of e-commerce platforms, forcing platforms to verify sellers, control the origin of goods, quickly remove violating products and share data with management agencies when necessary.
Third, promote traceability using digital technology, from product identification codes, blockchain to interconnected data systems between the health, industry and trade, customs and market management sectors. Finally, it is necessary to increase sanctions that are sufficiently deterrent, because the current penalty level is still not commensurate with the illegal profits earned from counterfeit goods.
Closely following the Government's direction on combating smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods to 2030, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued a deployment plan; assigned the Domestic Market Management and Development Department to complete the process, develop a counterfeit goods prevention project, train, establish databases, increase communication and control the quality of goods, especially on e-commerce.
