Preventing COVID-19 with Masks?…1191 Cases of Online 'False and Exaggerated Advertising' Detected

A consumer is looking at displayed masks in a large supermarket. The photo is unrelated to the article. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Online sales advertising sites that falsely or exaggeratedly advertised mask products have been massively caught.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 4th that, in cooperation with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Consumer Agency, they conducted an intensive inspection of online mask sales advertising sites over the past month and detected a total of 1,911 cases, including ▲745 cases of false patent labeling and ▲446 cases of false or exaggerated advertising.

The detected sites have been requested to be blocked by the Korea Communications Standards Commission and the respective shopping malls.

First, KIPO identified 745 cases of false patent labeling across 11 products. Among these, 691 cases involved incorrectly labeling ‘design registration’ as ‘patent registration.’ Other cases included 28 instances of products under application being labeled as registered products, 17 cases using application numbers that were rejected, and 9 cases displaying expired patent numbers.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Consumer Agency detected 446 cases of false or exaggerated advertising during their inspection. All detected cases involved non-medical masks being advertised as ▲blocking yellow dust and fine dust ▲droplet blocking ▲blocking harmful substances ▲medical supplies (KF masks) ▲virus and bacteria prevention, causing potential confusion with medical supplies.

Example materials of false and exaggerated advertisements detected during focused inspections. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

In particular, some were found to have falsely advertised medical efficacy such as prevention of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

KIPO and others requested the Korea Communications Standards Commission and the respective shopping malls to block the false and exaggerated advertising posts detected during the inspection.

A KIPO official emphasized, “In the COVID-19 situation, it is advisable to use medical supply masks approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety when wearing masks,” adding, “Medical supply masks are products whose performance in blocking fine particles and droplets has been verified, so when purchasing, it is essential to check for the ‘medical supply’ label.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.