The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2024
Gao Yijiang sold ordinary bottled water as an antioxidant drink and was fined ¥200,000
Shanghai Gao Yijiang claimed its bottled water could fight oxidation; the water was ordinary packaged water, and the regulator fined it ¥200,000.
Shanghai Gao Yijiang Health Technology · Gao Yijiang · 2024-06
What happened
Shanghai Gao Yijiang Health Technology is a health-products startup that sold two bottled-water lines under the Gao Yijiang brand: Laiyi Bottle and Yuanli Water. From February 2024 it promoted them on its official website, WeChat public account and WeChat mini-program with claims such as strongly anti-oxidant, resist free radicals, highly anti-oxidant, new antioxidant star, and that the water contained NANCW ultra-small bubbles that deliver continuous antioxidant benefits.
The products were ordinary packaged drinking water, not health foods or functional drinks. Under Chinese advertising and food-safety rules, only foods with an approved health-food permit may claim health functions such as antioxidant effects. The claims therefore violated the Advertising Law and the Food Safety Law Implementation Regulations.
In June 2024, the Shanghai Hongkou District Market Regulation Bureau fined the company ¥200,000, ordered it to stop publishing the ads and remove their influence. The case was later listed among Shanghai's 2024 model false and illegal advertising cases and was also featured in the national consumer-goods ad crackdown.
Why it happened
- The company tried to differentiate plain bottled water in a crowded market by attaching premium-sounding health claims that require a regulatory permit
- It published the claims across its own channels, which made the violation easy to document and trace directly to the advertiser
- The claims used pseudo-technical language such as NANCW ultra-small bubbles, which sounds scientific but had no approved health-food basis
- The fine came during a 2024 national campaign against livelihood-related false advertising, raising the probability of enforcement
The lesson
A health claim on a food or drink is a regulatory classification, not a copywriting choice. If the product lacks the permit, the claim becomes the evidence.
Aftermath
The penalty was publicised as a model case in Shanghai's 2024 false-advertising sweep and in the national consumer-goods ad crackdown. The company removed the antioxidant claims; the bottled-water products continued to be sold under their original names.
Sources
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