After a series of inspections last week, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) has found almost 1,700 commercial products that were using false or confusing labeling, or had no labels at all.
As more people are paying attention to the point of origin of the products they purchase, businesses have come up with various means by which to deceive consumers.
Following week-long inspections, the bureau found that 1,689 products — mostly clothing — in New Taipei City (新北市), Keelung, Hsinchu, Nantou, Chiayi and Taitung had either been mislabeled or had no label at all, BSMI Deputy Director-General Chuang Su-chin (莊素琴) told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
PHOTO: CNA
A press release providing additional information about the findings showed that jackets, dresses, T-shirts, shoes, sweaters and pants were often labeled “designed in Taiwan, made in China,” but the “China” part was damaged and hard to read, or the labels read “made in this country with imported materials.”
Several items contained no labels about where they were manufactured, what materials were used or how they should be washed.
“In Sindian District (新店), New Taipei City, we found 34 articles of clothing in one store with two labels. One said ‘made in Korea’ [in English], while the other said ‘made in Hong Kong’ [in Chinese],” Chuang said.
“In addition, in a coordinated effort between the bureau’s Tainan branch and the Chiayi branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation, we found as many as 1.3 million pairs of false eyelashes in the warehouse of [wholesaler] Yu-mei Hang (優美行),” Chuang said. “The items were labeled ‘made in Korea’ or ‘made in Taiwan,’ but they were actually all made in China.”
Businesses that sell mislabeled products are in violation of the Commodity Labeling Act (商品標示法) and are required to pull the mislabeled merchandise from the shelves and make improvements, she said.
“Retailers who fail to follow the requirements will face fines of between NT$20,000 and NT$200,000,” she said.
In addition to clothing items, the bureau tested 10 major brands of electric heaters available nationwide, of which all but one passed inspections.
Chuang said that while heaters produced by Imarflex passed the safety inspections, the wires used in the devices were different from those that had been pre-approved by the bureau.
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