Prohibition of access to magic and divination content by the Advertising Panel

The Ministry of Commerce announced that an administrative fine of 11 million 693 thousand 933 TL was imposed for secret price increases carried out through weight fraud and advertisements that do not comply with the legislation, such as “water for babies.”

According to the Ministry’s written statement, at the Advertising Council meeting held on October 10; Investigations into secret price increases carried out by psychics, baby water promotions and weight changes were discussed. It was determined that 125 of the 139 files discussed at the meeting were against the legislation. It was decided to impose a suspension penalty and a total administrative fine of 11 million 693 thousand 933 TL in relation to the advertising and commercial practices in question, as well as to impose a measure prohibiting access to 40 files.

The Board issued opinions and evaluations on a total of 1,662 files in the first 10 months of the year. It was decided to impose a suspension penalty and a total administrative fine of 75 million 835 thousand 314 TL for 1,470 files that were considered misleading advertising or unfair business practices, and to block access to 78 files.

ACCESS TO MEDIUM, SPELL AND FORTUNE CONTENT IS PROHIBITED

Psychic, magic and fortune promotions, which are carried out in a way that exploits the beliefs and emotions of consumers with fear, pressure and superstitions when accessing social media platforms and various websites, are not included in the Legislation of Advertising ‘Advertisements of services granted by fortune tellers, mediums, astrologers and the like.’ It was determined to be contrary to the “it can’t be done this way” provision; It was decided to impose measures to stop advertising on 39 websites and block access to these sites.

WATER PROMOTIONS FOR BABIES ARE CONTRARY TO THE LEGISLATION

In stores where baby products are sold and on the Internet, it is stated that spring waters or mineral waters of various brands under the name “baby water” “promote the bone development of babies” and “have a positive impact on the Kidney Health”, in a way that exploits parents’ sensitivity to baby products, was found to have been promoted with terms such as ‘contributes to healthy nutrition’.

It was decided that the statements that the required legal permission for sale under the name ‘baby water’ was not obtained, that the said product was put on sale with a special content for babies without being inspected and that the product would positively affect to the baby. health, were against the legislation and that the promotion carried out in this way misled consumers.

ADMINISTRATIVE FINE FOR SECRET INCREASES

Administrative fines and suspensions were imposed on 2 files in which it was determined that although the units of measurement such as grammage, quantity and weight of the products offered for sale to consumers were reduced, the secret increase in unit prices could not be noticed by consumers because the packaging or sales prices were not modified and, therefore, consumer purchasing decisions were manipulated. (DHA)