Yakult beverage company fined for misleading advertising

The Shanghai subsidiary of Japanese brand Yakult has been fined 450,000 yuan (US$69,767) by market regulators in the Pudong New Area for promoting the notion that probiotics play an important role in COVID-19 prevention and treatment.

The misleading promotion was effective in boosting the company's beverage sales, according to the administrative penalty notification issued by the Pudong New Area Administration for Market Regulation.

It also hindered fair competition among other probiotic beverage brands, according to the notification.

The company was also found to have improperly cited the Protocol for Diagnosis and Treatment of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia in the promotion, which would have generated medical trust in the Yakult lactobacillus beverage among the public, the administration said.

Other misleading promotional content was discovered as well.

For example, the company claimed that the intake of active probiotics every day is necessary to maintain the balance of intestinal flora, which also misled consumers who may believe that not consuming probiotics daily is harmful to one's health, according to the administration.

The administrative penalty was imposed based on China's law against unfair competition.