The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2023
Orión gel promised to kill 99.9% of germs — Indecopi found it couldn't prove any of it
May 2023: Indecopi fined Yomar S.A.C. S/388,575 — its Orión gel said 'kills 99.9% of germs'; the claim was false, and the gel lacked its alcohol permit.
Yomar S.A.C. · 2023-05
What happened
The packaging of Yomar S.A.C.'s 'Gel Sanitizante', brand Orión, carried the promise 'Mata el 99.9 % de los gérmenes' — it kills 99.9% of germs. Read at a shelf, that is total protection. Peru's Indecopi asked the obvious question: which germs, and where is the proof?
The answer was: none. The unfair-competition commission found the claim false — the gel was not effective against all germs or bacteria as the packaging implied — and fined Yomar 78.5 UIT, S/ 388,575, in Resolution Nº 069-2023/CCD-INDECOPI of 30 May 2023. Indecopi also found the company marketing the gel without the mandatory ethyl-alcohol registry, and ordered commercialization halted until the permit was obtained.
The double finding made the case a reference point: a superlative efficacy claim needs substantiation before it is printed, and a product sold without its licence compounds the deception. '99.9%' is a number that implies a laboratory; without one, it is decoration.
Why it happened
- '99.9% of germs' implies total protection — and the company could not prove efficacy against all germs at all.
- The packaging claim was treated as what it functioned as: a promise about the product's core efficacy, not puffery.
- Selling the gel without the mandatory alcohol registry compounded the case: the regulator halted the sales, not just the claim.
The lesson
A percentage is a promise: 'kills 99.9% of germs' demands proof of which germs, measured how. Without substantiation the number is deception — and licensing gaps make it worse.
Aftermath
The order demanded the definitive cessation of the 99.9% claim and of sales until Yomar obtained the alcohol registry; the decision was open to appeal. The case sits in Peru's hygiene-claim jurisprudence beside the later Mr. Músculo ruling.
Sources
- Indecopi — Sancionan a proveedor por difundir publicidad engañosa asegurando que gel eliminaba el 99,9% de gérmenes
- Ius Latin — Indecopi sanciona a empresa por difundir publicidad engañosa asegurando que gel eliminaba el 99,9% de gérmenes
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