Geely Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. was fined 600,000 yuan (5 million rubles at the current exchange rate) for incorrect advertising slogans.
Although the law does not allow this, the company used terms such as “national”, “highest” and “best” in its advertisements. According to paragraph 3 of art. 9 of the Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China prohibits the use of words such as “national level”, “top level” and “best”, as well as derivatives thereof.
The fine for such advertising ranges from 200,000 yuan to one million. Also, an offending company runs the risk of going without ad for a year – its ad auditing applications will not be accepted.
It is not the first time Geely has been fined for violating advertising laws. At the beginning of August this year, the company was fined for writing off goods or services from other manufacturers in its advertisements.
On May 12, 2022, Geely placed an ad on the official WeChat account “Geely Auto,” comparing the company’s hybrid technologies to those of Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota. The company was charged with depreciation of other manufacturers’ products, ordered to stop advertising and was fined 10,000 yuan (about 84,000 rubles).
But not only Geely likes to use the word ‘most’ in advertisements. Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. caught this in the summer too. and was fined 50,000 yuan (419 thousand rubles).