Romal Vietnam Company investigated for distributing fake appliances
Romal Vietnam Company investigated for distributing fake appliances
Local authorities initiated investigations against Romal Vietnam Company Limited, a company specialised in distributing European kitchen appliances, for importing counterfeit Chinese appliances branded as European goods to trick customers, according to the newswire Doi Song Phap Luat.
On January 22, the company’s director Nguyen Thi Ninh and her husband Nguyen Huy Tho as well as relevant people were summoned to testify. Simultaneously, local authorities carried out inspections at the company’s retail shops.
At the end of the investigations, authorities uncovered and seized thousands of Chinese products such as induction cookers, microwave ovens, infrared cookers, electric fans and gas stoves, relabeled as European products.
Notably, the relevant agencies raided a Romal Vietnam retail shop in Hanoi and seized about 185 Chinese products that had been slapped with counterfeit German and Italian labels.
A subsequent raid of a branch office in the central city of Danang led to the seizure of 85 products for the same reason.
Soon afterwards, Ho Chi Minh City police sealed a Romal Vietnam store after the manager locked its doors and fled.
Accordingly, Ninh, Tho and their employees confessed that Romal Company has been importing a massive volume of goods from Wintime Import and Export Trading Limited of Zhongshan company located in Guangdong, China since 2008.
They also confessed to distributing the swapped products via the Romal company and other websites, local supermarkets, shopping centres at many large cities in the country, such as Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City.
This illegal business conduct brought massive profits for the company. The average price of a counterfeit European product is VND15 million ($700), 4-5 times as much as a Chinese product. Since 2008 Romal Company has imported a total quantity of goods worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
The Ministry of Public Security is currently investigating this case aiming to launch a crackdown on the company’s violations.
