SOURCE / ECONOMY
China should launch regulation targeting false medical beauty ads: People’s Daily
Published: Sep 15, 2021 04:49 AM
Two women try on cosmetics in a shopping mall in Shanghai on March 8 2021. Many malls held promotions to honor women as well as boost sales to offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

Two women try on cosmetics in a shopping mall in Shanghai on March 8 2021. Many malls held promotions to honor women as well as boost sales to offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Yang Hui/GT


 China should conduct regulations targeting false ads in the medical beauty market, in order to rectify the market and protect the rights of consumers, said an article published by People’s Daily on Tuesday. 

The report volume for the medical beauty sector increased 14 times from 2015 to 2020, according to data from the China Consumers Association, and false advertising was the most commonly reported issue. 

According to iiMedia Research Institute, the number of China’s medical beauty consumers in 2020 hit 15.2 million, up from 2.8 million in 2016. China’s medical beauty market scale surpassed 300 billion yuan in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 23 percent.  

Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the domestic medical beauty sector received more attention and investment for various reasons, including the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic prevented Chinese consumers from going abroad to South Korea, which has advanced medical beauty techniques, and they had to turn to domestic medical beauty agencies,” said Zhang.

Zhang noted that the medical beauty sector received a large amount of investment because of the increasing market demand, but the problems of false advertising and lack of medical certificates are coming under the spotlight. 

“The current problems in the medical beauty sector are caused by the increasing market demand and the current immature supervision of the sector,” said Zhang. 

The State Administration for Market Regulation issued law enforcement guidance at the end of August targeting the regulation of medical beauty ads. Zhang believes that the regulators will soon complete specific rules for the sector.