Gangnam Unnie "Confirmed Legal Use of Non-Covered Prices, Before-and-After Treatment Photos, and Reviews"

Review Opinions from the Ministry of Health and Welfare through the Ministry of Science and ICT's Regulatory Sandbox Expedited Procedure

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of Health and Welfare has issued an opinion confirming that medical advertisements and reviews operated by the beauty medical information platform Gangnam Unni are legal. On the 30th, according to Healing Paper (CEO Hong Seung-il), the operator of Gangnam Unni, they confirmed this opinion after applying for the regulatory sandbox expedited procedure led by the Ministry of Science and ICT (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Science) through the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry last July.

The expedited procedure of the regulatory sandbox is a process in which the Ministry of Science quickly confirms opinions from related ministries regarding the existence of regulations. As a result, the Health and Medical Policy Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a related ministry, issued a legal review opinion on Gangnam Unni’s medical advertisements and reviews in accordance with Article 56 of the Medical Service Act. Specifically, the opinion concerns ▲non-reimbursable price indication ▲use of patient before-and-after treatment photos ▲legality of reviews on the Gangnam Unni platform’s medical advertisements.

First, the review opinion confirmed that the non-reimbursable treatment prices and patient before-and-after photos in medical advertisements operated by Gangnam Unni are legal. Non-reimbursable price information must not be discounted in a way that deceives or misleads consumers, and before-and-after photos are allowed only when certain conditions such as the same person, elapsed time, and disclosure of side effects are met. Additionally, reviews from users who have not received economic compensation from hospitals do not fall under medical advertisements.

Currently, Gangnam Unni provides medical advertisements for over 1,300 hospitals to 3 million users in Korea and Japan. Gangnam Unni operates a three-step internal medical advertisement review and false information reporting system to prevent hospitals from providing false or exaggerated treatment prices and before-and-after photos. In June, they also introduced a hospital reporting and penalty policy to prevent fake plastic surgery reviews.

A Healing Paper official stated, "The medical advertisement standards set by the current medical advertisement self-regulatory organization exceed the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s interpretation and the Medical Service Act, raising concerns that even non-reimbursable prices, before-and-after photos, and platform reviews that meet the conditions of legal medical advertisements could be classified as illegal advertisements."

Meanwhile, at the end of last year, a revision bill to the Medical Service Act was proposed to expand the scope of medical advertisement self-regulation to all internet media or designate specific platforms. Currently, the self-regulation target for medical advertisements applies to internet media with an average daily user count of 100,000 or more over a three-month period at the end of the previous year. Gangnam Unni’s average user count over the past three months is in the 30,000 range.

Jung Mina, Policy Director of the Korea Startup Forum, explained, "If the revision bill passes, the authority of the Korean Medical Association’s medical advertisement self-regulatory organization will increase, leading to prohibitions on price disclosure and other measures that would infringe on medical consumers’ right to transparent information, resulting in a regressive outcome."

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