Mr. Músculo said it eliminated 99.9% of germs — Indecopi asked which germs

S.C. Johnson & Son del Perú printed 'elimina el 99.9% de los gérmenes' on its Mr. Músculo cleaners — the bathroom formula and the lemon and orange kitchen variants. The claim suggested total victory over germs at home. Indecopi examined what 'all germs' meant, and what the company could prove.

Efficacy had been tested against a closed list of nine microorganisms — from SARS-CoV-2 and E. coli to Candida albicans. That is not 'all germs'. The company argued a back-label list of the tested strains corrected the claim; Indecopi disagreed: the unqualified headline on the front of the pack was what reached consumers, and a fine-print appendix did not fix it. The sanction, confirmed at final administrative instance, totalled 61.51 UIT — S/ 329,078.50: 51.51 UIT for the bathroom cleaner, 10 UIT for the kitchen line. The company was also entered in the Registry of Infringers.

The ruling reads as a companion piece to Peru's Yomar gel case: from a small firm or a multinational, the arithmetic of hygiene claims is the same — a percentage promise is judged by what was actually measured. And the correction belongs on the front, where the claim lives.