The Kangaroo Group has just been fined VND10 million (USD447) for their false advertisement on their RO water filters.
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| Kangaroo water filters |
Kangaroo's controversial advertisement for its KG102, KG103, KG104, KG105 products have been doubted over its accuracy when it said the filters, besides killing bacteria including E.coli, coliform, can also help reduce lipid levels in users' blood.
The advertisement said that the results have been announced by the Hanoi Heart Hospital following a survey conducted on patients.
This information was rejected by the wider public and local health experts who said that there's been no official study of the issue so far.
In a recent letter sent to Lao Dong Newspaper, Nguyen Quang Tuan, Director of the Hanoi Heart Hospital said that this results were just included in a recent hospital test report.
"In April Kangaroo came and asked us to help them do a test on 20 patients who had lipid disorders in two months from April to June," Tuan explained in the letter. "These patients used water from their filters and had some positive results. We then issued this report on October 1, which suggested patients with lipid disorders use water from RO Kangaroo filters as support during their treatment."
Nguyen Minh Tuan from the Inspection Agency of the Hanoi's Department of Culture and Sports said that Kangaroo had violated the Law on Advertising as they did not have permission from the department before launching their advert.
According to Vu Thi Huong from Kangaroo's PR and Communications Department, they have removed all the content from their website and were informing all their shops to change the information on their leaflets and products following a request from the Culture and Sports Department.