Food watchdog requests to throw book at violators of wrong nutritional supplement advertisements

According to the Food Administration of Vietnam, at present, there have been rampant violations. People have released various advertisements for dietary supplements and authorities have hardly controlled them.

In the face of widespread false advertising about nutritional supplements, especially some with images of well-known artists, actors and doctors, the Food Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health requested local authorities nationwide to issue harsh penalties on those that have published false advertisements or advertisements that have not been evaluated by health authorities.

Moreover, the Administration proposed to take strong measures against Facebook, Google, and YouTube, asking them to strictly comply with Vietnam's laws on advertising.

The Administration also proposed the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism propagate the provisions of the law on advertising to deter people from violating the law.

Additionally, it suggested strict punishment on organizations and individuals, artists participating in advertising of nutritional supplements by stating unverified information, or information that has not been censored by authorities, leading to consumers’ misunderstanding.

According to the Administration, fraudulent online advertising of dietary supplements and health products is rampant with increasingly sophisticated tricks and authorities are difficult to control.

Amongst them, fake advertising of food supplements, especially on websites, e-commerce sites, Zalo, Facebook, and YouTube whose servers are located abroad are difficult to control, so it is difficult to handle violations.

In the past year, food inspectors have issued sanctions on 23 establishments violating advertising collecting a total fine of VND1.26 billion including many false advertisements for food supplements.

At the same time, the Administration transferred the Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications 119 links, including 72 Facebook links, and 6 YouTube links to coordinate in handling advertising violations and transferred the Department of E-commerce and digital economy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade 82 links of e-commerce websites and e-commerce trading floors infringing advertisements for further punishments according to regulations.

Source: SGGP