FDA: Spokesperson To Be Held Responsible for False Advertisements|廣告產品若違規 代言名人將連帶受罰

Celebrities who endorse food products or cosmetics will now be held responsible if the products fail to comply with regulations. Consumer rights groups support the new health ministry rules,believing it will protect the rights of consumers. Four years ago, Taiwanese entertainer Matilda Tao endorsed a weight-loss capsule. However, it was recently found that the capsule contains the amount of aloe that is over 1,000 times the legal amount for humans. Ingestion of these capsules could lead to kidney failure. The Food and Drug Administration has fined the company behind the medication and has ordered them to remove the product from the shelf. Similar health concerns that involve products with celebrity endorsement have frequently taken place in recent years. The Food and Drug Administration recently issued an official document to inform vendors of their new regulations, which will subject the media outlets' anchors as well as the spokespersons to fines if the products fail to comply with regulations. The spokespersons themselves are aware of the fact that the products do not function as advertised. Thus they have involved in false advertisement. Once they are caught, they will be subject to punishments stated in our document. According to the statistics of the Food and Drug Administration, more than 90% of the products that involved false advertisements last year were food products and cosmetics. The advertisements often exaggerate the effect of these products. The total number of violations was 4,386, subject to a total fine of about NT$ 102 million. A platform breakdown has revealed that Shoppee, Yahoo and PCHome are the top three online platforms that offer the most false advertisements; On televisions, Etmall and MOMOshop are among the top five channels with the most false advertisements. In the past, it is rare that a products' spokespersons gets fined. We believe the new regulation could help curb the large amount of false advertisements. Officials at the Consumers' Foundation said that since the celebrities benefit from their product endorsements, they should be responsible for the effect of the products. The Food and Drug Administration said that false advertisements that exaggerate the effect of food products will lead to fines as high as NT$ 4 million; false advertisements of cosmetics could lead to fines as much as NT$ 50,000.