China considers official ban on cosmetics ads found to have ‘exaggerated claims’

22-Jul-2015 - Last updated on 22-Jul-2015 at 15:17 GMT

China's Legislative Affairs Office has published a draft document in which it states it is considering an official ban on any cosmetics advertisements with 'exaggerated claims'.

The Legislative Affairs Office published the draft on July 20th which outlines draft rules on the supervision and management of cosmetics.

The document states that advertisements should be genuine and legitimate, with scientific evidence and research data clearly published on the CFDA's website to back up claims.

Any company found to be making exaggerated or false claims will be suspended from selling their products in China.

If a beauty brand continues to practice in this way, it will, according to the Authority, be fined up to 50,000 yuan as well as having its' products being confiscated.

E-commerce suppliers are also called on to tighten management

The draft also called for e-commerce suppliers to tighten management over cosmetics sales and shut down any online shops found to have violated CFDA regulation.

That regulation states that online cosmetic sellers have to provide adequate lab and evaluation data for the marketing claims of their products as well as trading platforms to check the qualifications of cosmetics and drug sellers.

China has over 630 million internet users and this rule is intended to prohibit producers and wholesalers to sell products to online consumers, and will require sellers of food, health food, cosmetics, and medical apparatus and instruments to obtain permits.

Moreover, online shopping website operators are required to compensate consumers if the operators can't provide the identity and contact information of the cosmetic seller to the consumer once complaints occur.

India's having the same problem...

According to India's consumer complaints council, misleading or false advertising is most rampant in the personal care sector, accounting for more than half the total number of advertisements to have been banned by the ASCI.

The self-regulatory organisation reckons that as of 2013, there has been a significant rise in the number of cosmetic ads failing the Advertising Standards council of India’s compliance norms and code of conduct.

To date, the Council has upheld complaints on 148 ads for being misleading, false or not having adequately or scientifically substantiated claims.