HCMC – Television companies must jointly bear responsibly for broadcasting misleading advertisements on their channels that entice consumers to buy fake or substandard products, said the HCMC Consumer Rights Protection Association.
TV companies to bear responsibility for false ads
By Dinh Nghia - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Television companies must jointly bear responsibly for broadcasting misleading advertisements on their channels that entice consumers to buy fake or substandard products, said the HCMC Consumer Rights Protection Association.
Phan Thi Viet Thu, general secretary of the association, said this is part of Vietnam’s new Consumer Rights Protection Law that took effect from July 1.
If disputes occur, the association in the future will invite consumers, enterprises and television companies to work together to resolve the issue.
TV companies will have to prove that products follow the Law on Advertising, are being sold on the market and are registered for quality standards. They also have to bear responsibility if product quality is not as advertised.
TV companies must also check the sincerity of advertisements before broadcasting them, Thu added.
However, Thu said the new law has yet to regulate levels of responsibility or compensation. So, it would be difficult to force the companies to bear responsibility at the moment.
In the past there have been a number of companies advertising fake or sub-quality products on Vietnamese TV channels such as Happy Shopping and Viet An Trade. Most of the products are from China.
In related news, mobile service operators will also be responsible for contents of advertising messages sent to subscribers under the new Consumer Rights Protection Law, said Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau of the HCMC Bar Association.
Hau, head of the propaganda division under the bar association, told the Daily that telcos were responsible for ensuring that such messages caused no disturbance to subscribers and preventing spam messages.
“If advertising messages are to cause disturbance or harass subscribers, mobile service operators must refuse to carry the messages and must take measures to prevent such messages from being sent to subscribers,” Hau said.
Although other legal documents guiding the implementation of the new law have not been issued, the new law itself dictates that telcos must be prudent in transmitting advertising messages, he added.