140 Cases of False Online Advertising for Disinfectants, Masks, and Other Quarantine Supplies Detected

Consumer Agency Analyzes 400 Cases of Online Advertisements

Cases of Misleading Advertising of Hand Sanitizers.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] Online advertisements exaggerating the performance of quarantine products such as disinfectants and masks have been massively detected.

On the 15th, the Korea Consumer Agency announced that an analysis of 400 online advertisements for COVID-19 related products from April 12 to May 14 found that 140 cases (35.0%) contained potentially unfair advertising.

This investigation targeted 80 advertisements each for five product categories?masks, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, air conditioners, and air purifiers?on the eight most visited online shopping malls. Among these, disinfectants had the highest rate of unfair advertisements, with 40 cases (50.0%) detected. This was followed by hand sanitizers (38 cases), masks (31 cases), air purifiers (27 cases), and air conditioners (4 cases) in descending order of unfair advertising rates.

Among the types of unfair advertisements, those stating unproven claims such as "disinfects 99.9%" were the most common, with 67 cases (47.9%). Advertisements that could be mistaken for quasi-drugs or medical devices and those exaggerating product performance were each detected in 22 cases (15.7%).

There were also 44 cases where sufficient information was not provided according to the "Notice on Information Provision for Goods in Electronic Commerce, etc." Among these, 40 cases directed consumers to "refer to the detailed page" for some information, but the relevant content was actually missing. Four cases omitted the entire product information.

The Consumer Agency also analyzed the terms and conditions of the eight major shopping malls from March 22 to April 2 and found that seven malls allowed businesses to arbitrarily use consumer posts for promotion without permission, which could violate laws such as the Copyright Act. Seven malls were also found to allow deletion of consumer posts without prior notice.

The Consumer Agency stated, "Based on the results of this investigation, we have recommended sellers voluntarily correct false and exaggerated advertisements," and added, "We plan to recommend shopping mall operators improve unreasonable terms of use."

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