At present, the advertisement of cosmetic products is regulated in order to ensure safety and fairness to consumers. Restrictions on advertisement of cosmetic products are provided that no advertisement of cosmetic products shall be made by using statements, which are unjust to consumer or may be detrimental to the society as a whole, even in respect of origin, condition, quality, quantity or nature of the cosmetic products.
Before 20 November 2024, there are 6 types of statement, which shall be deemed unjust to consumer or may be detrimental to the society as a whole as follows:
- false or exaggerated statements;
- statements which cause material misunderstanding in cosmetic products, regardless of whether such statements using or referring to academic reports, statistics, or whatever that is false or exaggerated or not;
- statements that present healing effects, or that are not for the purpose of being cosmetic products;
- false statements deceiving on sexual rehabilitation
- statements which are directly or indirectly supportive to illegal or immoral offence or leading to the detriment of national culture; and
- statements leading to disunity among the public.
However, on 20 November 2024, the Minister of Public Health of Thailand issued a new ministerial regulation adding two new types of statement, which shall be deemed unjust to consumer or may be detrimental to the society as a whole. The two new types of prohibited statements are described as below:
(1) Statements which are understandable that (i) the cosmetic products are to be used inside the human body, excluding statements used in advertising of tampons, or (ii) the cosmetic products are to be used on teeth and oral mucosa; and
(2) Statements which are understandable that the cosmetic products are used for injections or used in conjunction with tools or devices that invade the human body or statements which are understandable that the cosmetic products are used in complementary of or used in conjunction with tools or equipment to push substances into the human body beyond the epidermis.
As a consequence, business operators in the cosmetics industry may need to take the newly prohibited statements into account and review advertising contents carefully before publishing the new advertisements.