The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 6th that it has identified 83 cases of violations of the Cosmetics Act through inspections of cosmetics sales postings online and has requested the Korea Communications Standards Commission and others to block access.
On the same day, the ministry noted that some companies advertised cosmetics as if they penetrated the skin epidermis and reached the dermis layer, showing effects similar to medical procedures. There are concerns about being misperceived as drugs or having misleading labeling and advertisements that exceed the scope of cosmetics. The ministry explained that it conducted inspections to minimize consumer harm resulting from this.
The identified advertisements include ▲ advertisements that risk misperception of cosmetics as drugs (53 cases, 64%) ▲ advertisements that exceed the scope of cosmetics (25 cases, 30%) ▲ advertisements likely to mislead consumers about general cosmetics as functional cosmetics or advertisements with content differing from the results of functional cosmetics evaluation (5 cases, 6%).
The ministry tracked and investigated unfair advertisements from general sales companies that were initially identified and added three additional unfair advertisements from responsible sales companies, bringing the total to 83 cases that were blocked. A field inspection and administrative action will be conducted by the local food and drug safety agency for the 35 responsible sales companies that were identified.
Shin Jun-soo, director of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's Bio Pharmaceutical Bureau, said, "It is important to clearly recognize that cosmetics are not drugs." He urged consumers to be wise in their cosmetic purchases by questioning advertisements that claim excessive skin improvement effects at a medical level and not to be deceived.