Is it required to affix sub-labels to imported goods?

My company specializes in trading home appliances. I’m intending to import some kinds of convenient (non-electric) household appliances from China for sale. All of these imported goods are labeled in Chinese. I would like to know if my company needs to affix a sub-label in Vietnamese to those goods. Besides, how much is the penalty for failing to label the sub-label? If my company’s goods have just finished the customs clearance procedure and haven’t been put into the market, will we be sanctioned? I hope that FDVN’s lawyers can advise me and respond to me soon.

Answer:

Thank you for concerning and trusting in FDVN’s legal services. We have studied the law provisions to provide you with our advice. Please kindly see the answer below:

[1]. Legal provisions on using of sub-labels:

According to Clause 1 Article 8 of the Decree No.43/2017/ND-CP on good labels: “The supplementary label shall be used for imported goods as prescribed in Clause 3 Article 7 hereof.”

In addition, Clause 3 Article 7 of the Decree No.43/2017/ND-CP stipulated as follows: “If the good imported into Vietnam of which the label has not represented or represented insufficiently mandatory information in Vietnamese, a supplementary label containing mandatory information in Vietnamese is required and the original label shall remain unchanged. The Vietnamese content shall be consistent with the original label text”.

Under the provided information by you, your company will import goods which are convenient (non-electric) household appliances. Thus, based on the regulations mentioned above, and pursuant to Clause 1 Article 10 and Appendix I of the Decree No.43/2017/ND-CP, in case your company imports goods manufactured in China into Vietnam of which the label has not represented or represented insufficiently the following Vietnamese content: (i) Name of good; (ii) Name and address of entity responsible for the good; (iii) Origin of good; (iv) Ingredients; (v) Specifications; (vi) Instructions for use; (vii) Warnings (if any), your company has to affix the supplementary label containing fully the Vietnamese content as listed above.

[2] Penalties for administrative violations related to supplementary labels

Under the provisions in point b Clause 1 and Clause 2 Article 31 of the Decree No.119/2017/ND-CP, it depends on the value of infringing goods, specifically as follows: “Imported goods have original labels in a foreign language but do not have auxiliary labels in Vietnamese” will be imposed an administrative fine ranging from VND 500,000 up to VND 1,000,000.

However, Clause 1 Article 18 of the Circular No.18/2018/TT-BKHCN also guided as follows: “Violation specified in Clause 1 Article 31 of Decree No.119/2017/ND-CP is the production, import, transport, storage or sale of goods of which label fails to specify or falsely specifies one of the compulsory information on goods labels or compulsory information on labels according to goods characteristics prescribed in Article 10 of Decree No.43/2017/ND-CP dated April 14, 2017, of the Government on goods labels, except for the cases of import of goods with an original label but not attached to any sub-label during the customs clearance procedure, in which cases, the goods must be labeled before being put on sale.”

Thus, in case your company’s goods have just passed through the customs clearance procedure and haven’t still been put into the market, you won’t be penalized for administrative violations against goods without sub-labels.

Above is FDVN LAW FIRM’s opinion for your consulting requests based on studying the relevant legal provisions. Hopefully, FDVN’s advice would be helpful to you.

Nguyen Thi Suong – FDVN LAW FIRM