China Beauty Duke Fined RMB 210,000 For Misleading Cosmetic Product Promotion

On 17 March, the Market Supervision Bureau of Baiyun District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, fined CMI Duke (Guangzhou) Skin Care Research Centre RMB 210,000 for making misleading commercial advertisements about the functions of the cosmetic products it sold.

On 30 November 2021, law enforcement officers of the Baiyun District Market Supervision Bureau of Guangzhou City conducted an inspection of Duke (Guangzhou) Skin Care Research Centre and found that the centre had made misleading commercial claims about the functions of the cosmetics it sold. The investigation was then opened.

The investigation found that on 10 September 2021, the centre had compiled a list of products containing the words "break down hormonal inflammation in the basal layer of the skin", "repair sebaceous membranes", "repair damaged tissues and cells" "improve immunity and metabolic function" and "consolidate and repair the stratum corneum", which were provided to employees for use, and organized one-on-one sales to consumers via mobile phones and micro-signals, constantly copying or reorganizing the above content to send to consumers.

The centre also organises one-to-one sales to consumers via mobile phones and micro-signals, constantly copying or reorganising the above content to send to consumers for the purpose of promoting and selling cosmetics.

It is understood that the centre sells in this way the "Perfect Skin Code Oligopeptide Epidermal Repair Original", "Angel Repair Cream", "Soothing Repair Serum" and "Beauty Essence". The cosmetic products, such as the "Zhen Yan Code Soothing Beauty Solution", are all ordinary cosmetics.

According to the law enforcement officials, the act of organizing a number of employees of the China-US Duke (Guangzhou) Skin Care Research Centre to conduct one-on-one promotion to a large number of consumers via WeChat was not an occasional occurrence, but an organized and commercial promotion for unspecified consumers.

Without any scientific basis or citation, the centre's act of advertising to consumers that the cosmetic products it sold were effective in "breaking down hormonal inflammation in the basal layer of the skin" and "repairing sebum film" misled consumers and should be regarded as a commercial advertising act that infringed on consumers' rights and interests. When the Centre was seized by law enforcement officers on 30 November 2021, the amount of illegal business obtained through commercial promotion was RMB85,034.

On 3 March 2022, the Guangzhou Baiyun District Market Supervision Bureau served the China-US Duke (Guangzhou) Skin Care Research Centre with a Notice of Administrative Penalty Hearing, informing it of the facts, reasons, basis and content of the proposed administrative penalty, and that the Centre did not make a statement or plea within the statutory period, nor did it request a hearing.

On 17 March, the Guangzhou Baiyun District Market Supervision Bureau ordered the Duke Skin Care Research Centre to stop using misleading commercial propaganda and fined it RMB 210,000.