TikTok China prohibited cosmetic contact lens advertising on its live broadcasting room

Interest e-commerce platform TikTok China prohibited live broadcasting room advertising for beauty and body care medical devices and contact lenses/solutions for contact lenses or other categories of products, cosmetic contact lenses, and medical dressings were included.

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On June 22 China Standard Time, TikTok China issued its Announcement about the prohibition of live broadcasting room advertising for "three types of products and one device" — Medicine, Health-care Food, formula food for special medical purposes, medical devices， and veterinary medicine. The Announcement has forbidden those live broadcasting rooms titled with the above products

According to the information gathered by CHAILEEDO, if the Ocean Engine advertising platform or the Qianchuan platform detected the above violations in the promotion, the advertisement will be suspended immediately. In the case of brand promotion, if the above rules are violated, the live broadcasting room that advertised the prohibited products will not be guaranteed the sales volume and the promotion fee will be paid according to the scheduled display volume.

The Announcement stipulated that the live stream advertisement for beauty and body care medical devices, contact lenses/ solutions for contact lenses, and other categories of products were prohibited. According to the medical device category management regulations announced by TikTok China in April, cosmetic contact lenses and medical dressings were included in the category of beauty and body care medical devices. This regulation announced in April only allows some targeted access to brand flagship stores, including Voolga, FulQun, Comfy, Rauer, Cofoe, BLOOMING-MIH, YIFU, Facelive, and Winona, all of the above are Chinese brands.

On June 10 China standard time, China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) also released an article titled "Notice for buying and using decorative colored contact lenses (cosmetic contact lenses)," clearly stating that Cosmetic Contact Lenses are contact lenses with a decorative function, known professionally as Corneal Contact Lenses. CFDA suggests that those contact lenses will directly cover the surface of the cornea and closely touch the eye tissue, so they are relatively high risk and directly related to the safety of the human eye.

At present, China has included cosmetic contact lenses in the regulation coverage of category III medical devices, which requires that only those sellers who obtained a business license and a medical device business license are legally allowed to run this business. The certificate of registered record for medical device network sale is also required if the business party wants to sell cosmetic contact lenses on China’s e-commerce platform.

As the public data showed, the consumer demands for cosmetic contact lenses are relatively low before 2012, while the market for contact lenses at that period was dominated by traditional brands such as Johnson & Johnson, BAUSCH + LOMB， CIBA Vision， and Cooper Vision. Later on, those Japanese and South Korean brands gradually entered the Chinese market, influencing the younger generation. Only after 2015, did China’s market demand for cosmetic contact lenses surge quickly, signifying the rise of China’s cosmetic contact lens brands.

The growing Chinese cosmetic contact lens market is flooded with all kinds of low-cost products, and consumers are the victims of those poor-quality contacts. Previously, reports of consumers wearing contacts with dry eyes and red blood have been exposed frequently, among which there are even more serious cases of colored eyes by the contacts and corneal ulcers. On the Chinese complaints platform Black Cat Complaints, there are hundreds of consumer complaints about the quality problems of contacts, mostly for the following reasons: grinding the eyes after wearing, dryness, conjunctivitis, and severe redness of the eyes.

To improve the quality of the cosmetic contact lenses market and advance the whole industry’s environment, Chinese government regulators have been gradually strengthening the management and supervision in this industry. In 2012, China Food and Drug Administration put in place comprehensive regulations on contact lens products and included them in the category of medical devices, stating that businesses are not allowed to produce or sell cosmetic contact lenses without a medical device registration certificate.

Recently, China Food and Drug Administration released an additional regulation to the previous Notice, suggesting consumers report to local Food and Drug Regulation Departments if they find counterfeit and shoddy products or unlicensed business operations for contacts products. The regulators will refer to the law while investigating and punishing those business practices violating the laws or regulations. Those who have criminal suspicions will be transferred to public security organs for criminal responsibility.

In just half a month, two regulations have been issued for contacts in the industry — the notice of contact lens risks from CFDA and TikTok China’s prohibition of cosmetic contact lenses advertisement in the live broadcasting room. With the joint efforts from China's regulators and e-commerce platforms, it is expected that the contacts industry will enter a new phase of ordered and regulated development.