9. Advertising Aspects

1 Mins to read

Share
Dark
Light

Article summary

Did you find this summary helpful?

Thank you for your feedback

General Foods
Taiwan

This section provides information on regulations on advertising and if there are any restrictions or approval processes.

9.1 Applicable Advertising Regulation

There are a couple of rules relevant to Food Advertisements in Taiwan. The key regulation is in the Taiwan Consumer Protection Act [1], which is administered by the Consumer Protection Committee.

According to Article 23 of Enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act in Taiwan [2], advertisements are defined as “disseminating messages or content of promotion by means of television and radio broadcasting, films, slides, newspapers, magazines, flyers, posters, signboards, arches, computers, facsimiles, electronic video, electronic voice mail or others, to the general public.”

Companies are responsible for ensuring that advertisements are not exaggerated or misleading. They must also ensure there is sufficient evidence to prove the advertisement is truthful. As stated in the Article 24 of the Enforcement Act, “When competent authorities consider the advertisement contains false, exaggerated, sufficiently misleading information, which may affect the rights of consumers, the authorities may notify the traders to provide information in proving the claims made in such advertisement”.

Besides the Consumer Protection Act, advertisement of food products should also comply with Article 28 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation [3].

9.2 Specific Restrictions on Advertising

According to Article 28 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation [3] and the Consumer Protection Act [1], the advertisement should not be false, exaggerated, or misleading.

In addition, foods cannot be promoted or advertised as having medical efficacy. There is also a restriction on advertisements, for example ban on TV advertisement at certain times for snacks, candies, drinks, ice products, and the food products sold by food suppliers for direct consumption, which are not suitable for long-term consumption by children under 12 years of age and contain one of the following nutritional contents:

Calories from fats accounting for more than 30% of the total calories.
Calories from saturated fats accounting for more than 10% of the total calories.
Sodium content higher than 400 milligrams (400 mg) per serving.
Calories from added sugar accounting for more than 10% of the total calories. [4]