Amidst the context where people's health and lives have been seriously affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, many pharmaceutical and supplement products have been introduced to help prevent, treat or support the treatment of Covid-19. It is not to mention a number of newly introduced electronic products with functions related to the prevention, inhibition or eradication of Covid-19 or named after these functions.
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To make sure that consumers are clear of product information, avoiding confusion or buying unwanted products amidst the context of the Covid 19 epidemic, the Vietnam
Competition and Consumer Authority has reviewed, collected and evaluated a number of information on household electrical products (such as air conditioners, air purifiers, disinfectant sprayers, lights, etc.), including products such as Air conditioners using Nanoe™ X Technology of Panasonic Vietnam Co., Ltd; products using ScentAir ION technology of Appliancz Vietnam Joint Stock Company; Products using Airocide technology of Viet My Technology and Equipment Joint Stock Company; Blueair Health Protect air purifiers of ASH Vietnam Co., Ltd; Philips disinfection air cleaner of In Situ System Integration Co., Ltd; Covid Nano sterilization and disinfection sprayer of Thai Thang Electronics Co., Ltd.
After review and evaluation, VCCA finds that the information related to features for the prevention or eradication of the Covid-19 virus provided by these enterprises is mainly based on the test results performed under limited laboratory conditions (with the controlled material, area, volume, air humidity, and air temperature as well as some other special conditions), and has not been tested in real-world conditions. However, the product information above does not state or is not clear about such limitations, including:
- The information provided on the product promotion images is insufficient, unclear, or too small to be read; or the played information on product promotion videos is too fast to read;
- The information about functions of eradicating, inhibiting or preventing viruses is given on the basis of laboratory test results while limited conditions in laboratories are not specified or disproportionate to actual use conditions;
- The products offer no functions relating to Covid-19 but their name and function information are associated with Covid-19 such as CV19, virus killing (without specifying whether it is Covid-19 virus or not), etc.
VCCA concludes that the provision of information on the effect of preventing, inhibiting and eradicating the Covid-19, Sars-Cov-2 virus of the products as mentioned above shows signs of violating the provisions of Point a, Clause 5, Article 45 of the 2018 Law on Competition.
VCCA has warned and asked the above enterprises to review and revise the information about their products to ensure compliance with the provisions of the 2018 Law on Competition.
At the same time, VCCA recommends that civilians should be alert and learn carefully before buying products with uses related to preventing or eradicating Covid-19.
Sincerely announce./.
