Surveillances and Handlings of Advertisings Violating the Cosmetics Act by Food and Drug Administration during the Fiscal Year of 2011-2015

Abstract

Objective:  To study the prevalence of advertisings violating the Cosmetics Act identified in the surveillances of Food and Drug administration (FDA) during the fiscal year of 2011 to 2015, to examine the results on relevant litigations, and characteristics of advertising messages breaching the Law. Methods: This study was a documentary research. The first step involved data collection from related documents on cosmetics advertising from the Cosmetics and Hazardous Substances Control Bureau in FDA during 5 studied fiscal years, especially those on FDA’s surveillances of advertisings and litigation of the cases on cosmetic advertisings to be fined by the order of FDA’s Secretary General. The second phase involved brain-storming among experts to examine accuracy of information and analyze the data to reach the conclusions on illegal advertisings of cosmetics in various dimensions. The researcher employed content analysis to summarize the characteristics of advertising messages violating the Law. Results: FDA’s examination of 63,266 cosmetics advertisings during 5 studied fiscal years showed 0.54% of unlawful advertisings. Law breaking advertisings on radio, television, and Internet were accounted for 3.81%, 1.27%, and 0.91% of total number of examined advertisings in corresponding media, respectively. One hundred eighty one litigations involved 179 cosmetics businessmen and 172 advertising businessmen. Around 57.46%, 22.81%, and 10.09% of the litigated advertisements were those appeared on magazines, internet, and television, respectively.  Among 351 offenders to be fined during 5 studied fiscal years, 53.57% did not pay the fine and had to be prosecuted.  When categorized the offences according to the Cosmetics Act 2015 A.D., 46.06% of messages violated the section 41(2) on showing the messages that might lead to misunderstandings of essential details of cosmetics. Law violating messages could be categorized into 4 groups, including 1) messages that might lead to the understandings that the product affects structures or functions of body systems which is considered by law as the effects of drugs; 2) messages showing the purposes of the product use inconsistent to legal definition of cosmetic; 3) claims in advertisings that cannot prove their credibility; and 4) inappropriate, over-claimed or falsified messages. Conclusions: The results from the study can be applied to the development of a handbook on the guideline for evaluation of cosmetics advertisement according to the Cosmetics Act 2015 A.D.