What happened
On 3 November 2026, Thai police and the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) searched a fenced warehouse in Bang Bon, on the western edge of Bangkok, and found more than 15,000 counterfeit personal-care products being packed for dispatch. Nine workers were at the packing benches: four Myanmar women, four Myanmar men and one Chinese man. The warehouse owner, a Chinese national, had already left the country, and police were seeking an arrest warrant.
Three days earlier, on 30 October, a DIP task force with the Economic Crime Suppression Division of the Central Investigation Bureau and the Royal Thai Police raided a separate operation in Udon Thani province, working from complaints about suspicious sales on online platforms. That raid seized over 250,000 counterfeit monosodium glutamate and seasoning powder items.
The Department's Director-General, Jittima Srithaporn, put the two together: more than 350,000 infringing items seized, with estimated damages exceeding 17.9 million baht.
The Bangkok method was packaging, not manufacturing
This is the part worth reading twice.
Police said the warehouse used empty bottles that had previously contained product, with labels attached before the goods were prepared for sale nationwide through TikTok and Shopee. Investigators found products refilled into used containers and repackaged to appear new, alongside more than 1,000 shipping boxes, 21 parcels ready to go to customers and several hundred returned parcels.
Nothing in the seized stock required a counterfeiter to copy a formula, duplicate a mould or reverse-engineer a packaging design. It required a bottle, a label and a marketplace account.
Counterfeiters no longer need to copy your product. They need a bottle, a label printer and a TikTok seller account.
One seized item carried the branding of Siriraj Hospital, a public hospital in Bangkok, rather than a luxury brand. That is a different risk: trust transferred from a name the consumer already knows.
The brands at the table were consumer staples. Unilever representatives were present at the Bang Bon search, and a P&G representative's contact with police is what triggered the operation. Ajinomoto (Thailand), owner of the Ajinomoto and RosDee trademarks, sent representatives to the Udon Thani raid.
Reading the numbers
- The Bang Bon count is reported as more than 15,000 items by the police and over 100,000 by the DIP. The reporting does not reconcile the two, and the combined 350,000 headline uses the DIP figure.
- The case falls under Section 108 of Thailand's Trademark Act: up to four years' imprisonment, a fine of up to 400,000 baht, or both.
- The 17.9 million baht is an estimate of damages to rights holders, not the value of the counterfeit goods on the shelf.
Source and caveats
Thairath, 5 November 2026, reporting the Department of Intellectual Property's account of both raids. The Bang Bon detail — the 15,000-item count, the nine workers, the TikTok and Shopee sales, the Siriraj Hospital shampoo and the trademark representatives — comes from police reporting carried by ASEAN NOW on 4 November, The Star on 5 November and Thailand Tribune on 3 November.
Two caveats. The two counts of the same warehouse do not agree, and the likely explanation is that they count different things — police counted finished retail units, while the DIP total appears to include empty bottles, labels, packaging and returned parcels held as evidence — but no breakdown was published, so the honest range is 15,000 to 100,000 items. And Thairath's English text is an automatic translation from the Thai original, which is why the operational detail here is cited to the English-language outlets that carried it directly.
Key takeaways
- Over 350,000 infringing items worth more than 17.9 million baht were seized across two Thai raids — Udon Thani on 30 October and Bangkok on 3 November 2026.
- The Bangkok operation caught counterfeiting at the packaging stage: used bottles refilled, labels applied, and the goods sold nationwide through TikTok and Shopee.
- Brand representatives were present at both searches, and a P&G representative's call to police is what triggered the Bangkok operation.
- The penalty on offer is up to four years and a 400,000 baht fine under Section 108 of the Trademark Act.
- The warehouse's own inventory is the tell: 1,000-plus shipping boxes, 21 parcels ready to go, and several hundred returned parcels.
What this means for a brand owner
- The listing is the new packaging. A counterfeiter who refills bottles does not need to copy your artwork. They need a marketplace account, and marketplace takedown belongs in the same plan as print security.
- A contact with the local police is a process, not a favour. Both raids began with a brand representative making contact and being present at the search. Build that relationship before it is needed.
- Make a refilled bottle detectable. The seized stock had already been refilled and relabelled. If your packaging carries a serial, a batch code or a scannable identifier, a refilled bottle is not a substitute for your product — it is detectable the moment a consumer, retailer or inspector picks it up.
- Know which marketplace your customers actually use. The goods moved through TikTok and Shopee. There the listing reaches the consumer before the goods ever ship, so enforcement is a listing problem long before it is a logistics one.