British multinational company Reckitt Benckiser has failed to convince Competition Commission of Pakistan that Strepsils is a “medicated” product.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Feb 13th, 2021) Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) said that Strepsils was not a medicine and declared its advertisement as “misleading” , the latest reports said on Saturday.
CCP also imposed Rs 150 million as a fine on the company.
Strepsils is the product of Reckitt Benckiser, a British multinational consumers goods company.
The Commission made this decision on a complaint that Reckitt Benckiser was running a fake and misleading advertisement about Strepsils that it was treatment for throat soar and cough and that its use could be effective.
According to the complainant, Reckitt Benckiser got Strepsils registered as a medicine after getting rights of this company from another company. He said that the company used “non-medicated lozenges” while the consumers were not informed by the company that no ingredients were used in its manufacturing for treatment of pain or cough in throat.
The Commission held investigation on the complaint against Reckitt Benckiser and found it guilty of violating its Section 10 by advertising misleading content for “Strepsils”. The Commission held that the company caused huge loss to the other companies by “claiming it a medicine”.
The commission also heard the company but it failed to convince it regarding manufacturing of Strepsils and its use as a medication.
The commission held that branding mattered a lot in businesses and after certain changes in its “ingredients” it turned into a “non-medicated product”. The commission observed that writing in small letters on a very small proportion on a project is not sufficient when it came to awareness of the consumers.
The commission imposed fine of Rs 150 million on the company and directed the company to “clearly” mention in “visible words” that Strepsils was a “non-medicated” product. The commission also directed the company to run advertisement on electronic and print media to inform its consumers that Strepsils was not a medicine and that the consumers should consult the doctors for treatment.
