According to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, the draft law comprises additional regulations on the obligations of KOLs (key opinion leaders) and influencers on the content of ads.

Under the draft law, KOLs and influencers, when advertising products, must comply with regulations on consumer rights protection and related regulations on the features and characteristics of goods and services. They also must fulfill duty obligations when they have revenue from ad services in accordance with tax laws.

The people who show ad content must inform consumers in advance about the fact that they are offering advertising activities.

The draft law comprises a noteworthy provision that KOLs, when publishing their opinions and thoughts about the results of using cosmetics and functional food on social networks, must be the users of the products.

The National Assembly’s Committee of Culture and Education Chair Nguyen Dac Vinh said the committee agrees with the proposed provision. However, he said that the draft law doesn’t clearly show how to confirm that KOLs really use the products they advertise and doesn’t show the sanctions on violators.

Pointing out that many ads provide wrong information which mislead consumers and causes serious consequences, chair of the National Assembly’s Committee of Legal Affairs Hoang Thanh Tung requested to carefully check the current laws and design effective solutions to control and handle violations related to ad content.

“We have a legal framework to control advertisements, but false ads on mass media still occur frequently,” he said.

If consumers believe advertised information released by KOLs and influencers, buy and use the products, they may suffer from the information. The consequences will be more serious if people buy drugs which cannot treat their diseases.

“Many people complain that the advertisements sound very interesting, but the drugs are useless,” he said.

Therefore, he hopes that the compilation agency drafts provisions dealing with the behaviors of advertising falsely. The law must clearly show the responsibilities that involved parties must take when violations occur, including advertisers, advertisement agencies, KOLs conveying ad content, and state management agencies.

Agreeing with Tung, chair of the National Assembly’s Economics Committee Vu Hong Thanh said many ads exaggerate the effects of some drugs and even say they can treat all kinds of diseases.

Therefore, he suggested that the law compilers need to clarify the responsibilities of the enterprises that provide the products and services in ads, because ad content is mostly created based on information provided by the enterprises.

Responsibilities 

Head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Deputy Affairs Nguyen Thanh Hai pointed out that many social network users, especially famous singers and artists, as well as KOLs, advertise the products and services with problems in quality.

“I think that regulations must be designed in a way to ensure the honesty of ads, thus helping protect consumers’ rights,” Hai said.

She admitted that it is difficult to build mechanisms to control and inspect advertisements. There must be regulations aiming at preventing profiteering from legal loopholes which may cause serious consequences to consumers.

“Violations not only occur in advertising cosmetics and food products. Before travelers plan a tour, they seek information about the destination on the internet, read reviews and comments about local restaurants. When celebrities eat at restaurants and introduce them to people, this is a form of advertisement,” Hai said.

Many individuals even set up a channel of their own to introduce restaurants and eateries. The introductions by celebrities help attract more diners and increase the revenue of the restaurants.

Individual diners can give comments about food and services they use, but they cannot be sure about the food quarantine.

As for advertising on the internet, the draft law says that the unskippable ad duration is 6 seconds instead of 1.5 seconds as currently applied, and there must be no more than two consecutive ads.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam said the duration for bumper ads applied by most cross-border services, including YouTube is six seconds.

Thu Hang