Supplier fined for selling masks with false claim of origin to govt

A mask supplier was fined HK$360,000 at the District Court on Tuesday after supplying surgical masks with false claim of origin to the Government Logistics Department (GLD) in 2020.

The court heard that GLD has ordered 32 million masks claiming to be manufactured in Japan from supplier Global Party Limited in March 2020. However, the government later found that about 12.5 million masks supplied to the GLD from July to August 2020 were produced in China.

GLD filed a writ to the High Court demanding compensation from the Hong Kong-based company for "fraudulent misrepresentation" in the contract, after the Customs investigation confirmed the concerned masks were not produced in Japan, as the company had claimed.

Global Party was fined HK$360,000 following an earlier conviction of supplying the masks with false trade descriptions, with judge Edmond Lee Chun-man ordering the company to pay the fine within six weeks.