IKEA fined US$1.7m for falling foul of advertisement law

IKEA China has recently been fined more than 1.7 million yuan (US$263,020) for violation of China's advertisement law, according to the city's market watchdog.

Light box advertising released by the Swedish company at Shanghai's subway stations claimed its GUNRID curtains had the effect of air purification.

But the function could only be achieved under an ideal situation with certain experimental conditions and only certain pollutants were targeted according to its report, the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation discovered.

Also, the real environment in daily life is far from an experimental situation, making the purification effect impossible in general, according to the administration.

The function was a decisive factor for consumers when they made the purchase, investigators found.

The ads were released at Shanghai's Metro stations and e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu between late August and mid-October, with the advertisement fee totaling 575,000 yuan.

The company was fined 1.725 million yuan.