Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Conduct Intensive Investigation on False Advertising of Medical Devices and Illegal Distribution of Health Supplements

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is launching an illegal crackdown targeting medical device and health functional food sales companies.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police announced on the 13th that from the 17th to the 28th of this month, they will crack down on false and exaggerated advertising as well as illegal manufacturing and distribution of health functional foods at about 80 locations, including medical device sales companies operating free trial rooms targeting vulnerable groups such as the elderly, health functional food manufacturers, and health functional food sales companies within the province.

The investigation items include ▲ false and exaggerated advertising regarding the efficacy and effects of medical devices ▲ advertisements that cause misunderstanding of non-medical products as medical devices ▲ selling health functional foods without registration for health functional food sales ▲ promoting gambling tendencies to sell health functional foods ▲ manufacturing and selling harmful health functional foods ▲ manufacturing and selling products past their expiration date ▲ failure to conduct self-quality inspections at health functional food manufacturing sites.

The special judicial police of the province plan to impose penalties under the current Medical Device Act, including imprisonment of up to 3 years or fines up to 30 million KRW for false and exaggerated advertising of medical devices or advertisements causing misunderstanding of non-medical products as medical devices. Under the Health Functional Food Act, manufacturing and selling harmful health functional foods may result in imprisonment of up to 10 years or fines up to 100 million KRW.

Kim Min-kyung, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police, stated, "Demand for medical devices and health functional foods as gifts is expected to increase ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday." She added, "This crackdown is expected to prevent damage to residents caused by false and exaggerated advertising of medical devices and help maintain order in the distribution of health functional foods."

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