On the afternoon of November 19, the court sentenced beauty queen Nguyen Thuc Thuy Tien, Nguyen Thi Thai Hang (known as Hang Du Muc), and Pham Quang Linh (Quang Linh Vlogs) to two years in prison each. Co-defendants Le Tuan Linh and Le Thanh Cong received prison terms of three years and three months, and three years respectively, all for the crime of "deceiving consumers."

Each defendant was also fined an additional 50 million VND (approximately USD 2,000).

Legal loopholes in functional food oversight

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Thuy Tien, Quang Linh Vlogs, and Hang Du Muc at the court hearing. Photo: PQ

According to the court, the criminal methods employed in the Kera candy case exposed numerous regulatory weaknesses in the state's management of food product manufacturing, marketing, and e-commerce.

Vietnam’s 2010 Law on Food Safety and Decree 15/2018 allow companies to self-declare and take full responsibility for product quality. While intended to streamline business operations, these provisions lack filtering mechanisms and post-market inspections. Moreover, no agency is clearly tasked with evaluating submitted product declarations.

As a result, many low-quality products have entered the market under the guise of formality - Kera candy being a prime example.

The court also highlighted the lack of a distinct legal framework for functional foods and dietary supplements. These products are currently regulated as conventional food items, even though many are marketed with medicinal-like claims to circumvent clinical testing and licensing requirements.

Self-declaration without thorough testing

The self-declaration mechanism means product quality is not independently verified before entering the market. Companies are not obliged to fully test for nutritional content, effects, or efficacy. Government agencies only assess paperwork for formal compliance and do not evaluate actual content.

This legal gap has allowed companies to perform only superficial testing - or worse, collude with testing labs to buy fabricated results to legalize unverified products.

Post-market inspections are also weak due to limited manpower and low inspection frequency, especially for small businesses and online sellers.

The court noted that regulating advertisements and online sales remains a challenge, particularly on social media and cross-border e-commerce platforms. Many products are advertised with ambiguous or exaggerated claims, complicating the responsibilities of oversight agencies.

Moreover, the lack of a shared national database hinders timely detection of violations.

Call for tighter regulations - especially for influencers

The court urged government agencies to comprehensively review legal frameworks on food safety, marketing, and digital commerce, closing the loopholes currently exploited by offenders.

It also emphasized the need for specific rules to govern public figures, celebrities, and key opinion leaders (KOLs), whose influence can significantly sway consumer behavior.

Thanh Phuong