How is false advertising punished?
Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan, residing in Dien Chau district, asked: How will the act of advertising falsely and exaggerating the effects of a product be punished?
Reply:
False advertising may be subject to administrative penalties as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 34, Decree 38/2021/ND-CP.,Specifically: fine from 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 VND, except for the cases specified in Clause 4, Article 51; Point b, Clause 4, Article 52; Clause 1, Article 60; Point c, Clause 1, Article 61, Decree 38/2021/ND-CP.
For acts of false advertising, if there are sufficient elements to constitute a crime, it can be criminally punished according to Article 197 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), which stipulates the crime of false advertising with the following penalties:
“1. Anyone who falsely advertises goods or services, has been administratively sanctioned for this act or has been convicted of this crime, and has not had his/her criminal record expunged, but continues to violate, shall be subject to a fine of from VND 10,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 or to non-custodial reform for up to 03 years.
2. Offenders may also be fined from VND 5,000,000 to VND 50,000,000 and banned from practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 01 to 05 years.
Thus, if an organization or individual has been administratively sanctioned for false advertising according to the provisions of Decree No. 38/2021/ND-CP of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the field of culture and advertising but continues to violate, they may be subject to criminal prosecution according to the provisions.
