Counterfeit goods, expiry tampering a ‘very huge problem’, says Consumer Affairs secretary

NEW DELHI: Counterfeit goods and related malpractices such as tampering with manufacturing and expiry dates pose a serious challenge and require constant monitoring, says Consumer Affairs Secretary, Nidhi Khare.

Speaking at the FICCI CASCADE Seminar on Protecting Consumers in New Delhi, Khare noted, “People are actually rubbing out the manufacturing date and then they are putting fresh expiry dates on expired products. So, this is a very, very huge problem”.

She said counterfeit products continue to circulate across markets despite enforcement efforts. “It is like a cat and mouse thing. You do it here, they go there. You do something there, they shift their base somewhere else”, she said, adding that the issue requires constant monitoring and attention.

Highlighting the scale of the problem, Khare cited data from one e-commerce platform which identified “one crore 21 lakh 31 thousand 880” product listings as counterfeit between August 4, 2022 and June 5, 2025. Of these, 69 lakh listings were removed between April 2023 and September 2024, and “12 lakh 31 thousand” listings between September 2024 and May 2025. “This shows the scale of counterfeiting which is going on and this is only one platform”, she said.

The Inaugural Session on “Advancing Consumer Protection through Stronger Policy and Institutional Frameworks” at the seminar
“Protecting Consumers: Addressing the Threat of Smuggling and Counterfeiting” will have the eminent leaders driving policy, governance, and enforcement to… pic.twitter.com/M8mtn2s3Oe

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Khare also pointed to the growing sophistication of counterfeit goods. “Even as a Jago Grahak aware grahak, I could not make any difference,” she said, referring to the difficulty in distinguishing genuine products from fakes. She said such products are often deliberately manufactured to imitate genuine goods and bypass intellectual property protections.

“People are willfully manufacturing a product just to imitate and get past the issues of patents, of intellectual property rights or trademark,” she said. Counterfeit products are able to persist in the market partly because they are not immediately life-threatening. “Counterfeit is not so life-threatening and therefore they are able to survive in the market,” she said.

Khare said tackling counterfeiting and smuggling requires coordinated efforts across agencies as well as greater consumer awareness. “Consumers have to be aware of what they are buying. They should check out the quality of products that they are buying and they should make sure that it is not fake counterfeit,” she said.

She also cautioned buyers against falling for misleading pricing tactics. “They should not be distracted by heavy discounts or some absolutely very very attractive offers,” she said. She urged consumers to use official channels to report complaints. “We have the National Consumer Helpline 1915. It is a toll free number. We take complaints in 17 languages and we are working 24 hours 7,” she said.

Khare also told media on the sidelines of the event that about the other consumer protection measures. On dark patterns in e-commerce, she said, “We have taken out guidelines on the prevention of dark patterns on the e-commerce and this was done with very wide consultation with all the e-commerce entities. Thereafter, we have given them time, we have also asked them to self-audit and many of the major e-commerce, about 30 of them, they have already said.”

On legal metrology reforms, Khare said, “We have decriminalized many of the professions and they are part of the Jan Vishwas bill. And further we are going to deregulate, reform, make it very, you know, speedy, hassle-free for all our stakeholders.”

On smuggling, she added, “Smuggling of course I cannot say and I am sure Mr. PC Jha would be talking about that. About the counterfeiting, the issue is… can we continue to ignore this big elephant of fake commodities, selling of counterfeits or selling of spurious products.”

Khare also reassured the public about food commodities in the country. The government monitors about 40 food commodities on a daily basis from about 570 price monitoring centers across the country and the food commodities are absolutely good, she said, adding that there is sufficient availability as the government has buffer stocks and there is no need to worry as the prices are stable and in range. (ANI)