Shopee, Lazada agree to remove illegal food products in 24 hours

Thailand’s two e-commerce giants have agreed to comply with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s request and will remove dangerous and unlawful food products from their virtual shelves within 24 hours.

Lertchai Lertwut, FDA deputy secretary-general, said on Tuesday that he had invited representatives of Lazada and Shopee for a discussion on how Thai consumers can be protected from dangerous foods that have not been certified by FDAS.

During the meeting, he said, representatives from both platforms agreed to remove food products that have not received FDA registration numbers from their online shelves within 24 hours.

Between September last year and September this year, Lazada has removed 9,454 food items that did not have FDA numbers and threw 30 shops that broke the law out of its platform, Lertchai said.

He added that 134 shops on Lazada also faced legal action for selling unlawful food products.

Shopee, meanwhile, has promised to educate its sellers on not selling illegal food items and will remove such items if they are spotted.

Lertchai said the two platforms had also agreed to build an automated system that links with the FDA’s database with the application interface software to quickly handle illegal products.

He said FDA officials have also been trained to use online channels to contact police or other agencies to ensure fast legal action against those selling illegal food products. He added that the FDA will soon develop its own AI system to scan online platforms for illegal food products.