Customs pull 19,000 mislabeled goods off shelves in six-month investigation

Hong Kong customs have pulled around 19,000 products off shelves which are suspected to be mislabeled or come without bilingual warnings during an investigation spanning more than six months.

The investigation started after Customs in April last year conducted an enforcement operation against a retail chain AbouThai for selling suspected law-breaking personal care and household cleaning products.

Customs said on Monday they have received around 500 reports after the operation, alleging that a number of retailers in the market were also selling mislabelled goods.

The goods in question were said to have failed to bear Chinese and English bilingual warnings or cautions in the product information marked on their packages, suspected to be in contravention of the Consumer Goods Safety Regulation, a subsidiary legislation of the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance, according to Customs.

The six-month investigation has found 60 mislabelled products being sold by about 90 traders - including retail chains, retailers, suppliers, and importers.

The traders were ordered to store about 19,000 items of the 60 models of suspected law-breaking products at designated premises for further investigation, a Customs statement wrote.

Those 60 models involved various types of products, including hand sanitizer, surgical masks, skincare products, personal care products, household cleaning products, clothing mist, laundry balls and deodorant.

Customs said follow-up investigations of all cases are ongoing.

Under the Consumer Goods Safety Regulation, consumer goods should mark warnings or cautions in both English and Chinese languages or their packages, with the warnings or cautions legibly and conspicuously shown.

The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of HK$100,000 and imprisonment for one year on first conviction, and HK$500,000 and imprisonment for two years on subsequent conviction.