Trade Minister Reveals Circulation Of Illegal Assembled Phones Reaches IDR 17.6 Billion

Minister of Trade Budi Santoso (Photo: dock. VOI)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Trade (Mendag) Budi Santoso revealed that there were findings of illegal practice of assembling and selling cellphones and cell phone accessories from illegal imports from China. The disclosure was made during an exposure at a shophouse in the Green Court area, Cengkareng, West Jakarta, Wednesday, July 23.

Budi conveyed that from the results of the supervision, his party confiscated 5,100 units of homemade cellphones worth Rp12.08 billion, and 747 collision accessories such as chargers, casings, and batteries amounting to Rp5.54 billion, bringing the total value of confiscated goods to Rp17.6 billion.

"So all of these items are assembled goods, become machines, then accessories, chargers, all taken from or sent from Batam which are illegal imports from China. So these items are all illegal products from China," he said at a press conference, Wednesday, July 23.

Budi said that these items were sold online through the marketplace at very low prices, namely hundreds of thousands of rupiah per unit and most of them were used goods or reconditions that were repackaged as if they were new products.

As for the disclosure, products from various mobile phone brands such as Oppo, Vivo, Redmi, to iPhone were found. As well as various accessories such as charging or charger equipment, cell phone batteries, charging test machines and others.

Budi added that there were 5,100 confiscated products that were produced or assembled from the shop for a week, and this shop has been operating for 2 years since mid-2023.

Budi further explained that the violation committed by this trader was importing illegally in the form of used spare parts and then assembling cellphones with reconditioned materials and as if selling new goods.

"So many violations have been committed. Against this violation, the company is closed to not be allowed to carry out business activities. Then we will secure all products, and later we will coordinate with law enforcement officials for further processing," he explained.

"So once again we remind traders to no longer import illegally and not carry out activities like this. Because this will harm consumers, harm the community, and harm the state," he added.

He admitted that he would coordinate with e-commerce parties regarding the place where these traders peddle their products.

Budi emphasized that the Government will act decisively against this kind of violation and also appeal to marketplace platforms to be more selective in supervising products sold on their platforms.

"To the marketplace, please check the product if selling first. Yes, illegal products or not. Therefore, it will also harm consumers, harm the community, and of course also harm the state. So once again because online sometimes people don't know the original, which is illegal or not. So we ask the marketplace to select these products before they are sold," he said.

Budi explained that the initial suspicion of revealing the case was through the tracing of the Ministry of Trade's team against suspicious activities on e-commerce platforms and public reports.

"So on July 15, we began to suspect that what was sold in the marketplace. Then after we traced it here and information from the public, it turned out that this place was indeed to process illegal imported products, after that we carried out a monitoring process like this," he explained.

For information, this trader is charged with Article 111 jo. Article 47 paragraph (1) of Law (UU) No. 7 of 2014 concerning Trade, with a maximum imprisonment of 5 years and/or a maximum fine of IDR 5 billion.

Then for brand counterfeiting, traders are charged with Article 100 paragraph (1) of Law 20/2016 on Marks and Geographical Indications with a maximum imprisonment of 5 years and/or a maximum fine of IDR 2 billion.

Then for the activity of producing and trading defective or used goods, not according to certain quality standards, and not good and/or not new, traders are charged with Article 62 paragraph (1) jo. Article 8 paragraph (2) and Article 9 paragraph (1) letters a and b of Law 8/1999 concerning Consumer Protection.

The threat is a maximum imprisonment of 5 years or a maximum fine of Rp. 2 billion. Furthermore, for ownership of the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) which was not officially charged with Article 52 jo. Article 32 of Law 36/1999 concerning Telecommunications with the threat of imprisonment of 1 year and/or a maximum fine of Rp. 100 million.

Finally, for behavior in violating the obligation to register a manual for a guarantee card (MKG), traders are charged with Article 62 paragraph (1) jo. Article 8 paragraph (1) letter j of Law 8/1999 concerning Consumer Protection. The threat of imprisonment is a maximum of 5 years or a maximum fine of Rp. 2 billion.