The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2022
Foltène fined ¥100,000 for '生发' hair-growth claims on a shampoo with no such efficacy
Shanghai Pudong fined Foltène's importer ¥100,000 for advertising the hair-loss shampoo as growing hair when it had no such proven efficacy.
Foltène (丰添) · 2022-01
What happened
Foltène's '防脱发洗发液（男用）' is an imported special-use cosmetic, registered for thinning-hair care but not for regenerating hair. On 25 January 2022 the Shanghai Pudong New Area Market Supervision Administration ordered the importer, 百互润贸易（上海）有限公司, to eliminate the misleading promotion and fined it ¥100,000.
The product pages pushed lines that promised more than the product could deliver: '增发密发减少掉发', '清洁毛囊调节油脂分泌促进头发生长', and '生发专研实力认证见证使用效果'. The regulator found the company could only provide efficacy data for hair cultivation, cleansing follicles and regulating oil — it had no genuine evidence that the shampoo promoted hair growth.
By using the medical-sounding term '生发' (hair growth) to state or imply a medical function, the advertising ran against the Advertising Law, which bars cosmetics from being promoted as treating or preventing disease or as altering physiology.
Why it happened
- A thinning-hair shampoo borrowed the promise '生发' — hair growth — which it was never registered or proven to deliver
- The marketing copy stacked medical-sounding terms ('清洁毛囊', '促进头发生长') onto an ordinary cosmetic to clear the credibility bar
- The importer held data for cleansing and oil control but none for actual hair regrowth, so the strongest claim had the thinnest evidence
The lesson
A hair-loss product's most saleable claim is one regulators police hardest. Efficacy wording reaching for a medical promise ('生发') must rest on evidence the product was never approved to carry.
Aftermath
The company was ordered to eliminate the misleading promotion and fined ¥100,000 by the Pudong regulator.
Sources
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