The Department of Justice has been asked to consider whether ParknShop should be prosecuted for misleading customers into buying oilfish. Fourteen customers who bought oilfish labelled as cod have complained they suffered diarrhoea.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) has offered to pass evidence it has collected to the Department of Justice.
An FEHD spokesman could not say whether prosecution would be considered under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance or the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance.
The Democratic Party has received more than 200 complaints and one of its legislators, Fred Li Wah-ming, said the party's lawyers would decide today whether to sue ParknShop on behalf of the complainants.
The department has received 620 inquiries and complaints about oilfish, which it points out is sold by other stores, not only ParknShop. Rival Wellcome has said it unwittingly sold oilfish labelled as cod. Supermarket chains, frozen food shops and restaurants have agreed not to sell oilfish.
ParknShop says the mislabelled oilfish was bought from Indonesia, and came with a health certificate from the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries identifying it as cod. The Indonesian government is still investigating why the certificate identified it as cod.