Taiwan polices marketing claims the way other markets police product safety: actively, by local health bureaus, with fines that scale by repeat offense, and with a definition of “advertisement” wide enough to include an influencer’s Instagram caption and a customer’s shared review. In 2024 Taipei City alone fined 669 food, drug, device and cosmetic ads a combined NT$75.88 million — food violations made up more than two-thirds of the total — and the top offender was a creator-founded food brand fined NT$6.94 million for claims about the womb and menopause. For a foreign brand, claims discipline in Taiwan isn’t a legal nicety; it’s a P&L line. Here’s the law, the categories of forbidden language, the penalty structure, and how to build a message house that survives.
The legal frame in one table
| Product | Governing rule | False / exaggerated / misleading | Medical efficacy claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food (incl. supplements without Health Food certification) | Food Safety and Sanitation Act, Art. 28 | NT$40,000 – 4,000,000 | NT$600,000 – 5,000,000 |
| Cosmetics | Cosmetic Hygiene and Safety Act, Art. 10 | NT$40,000 – 200,000 | NT$600,000 – 5,000,000 |
| Certified Health Foods | Health Food Control Act | Only the approved claims, in the approved wording; anything beyond is treated as above | |
Fines are per violation, and enforcement guidance escalates the base fine with each repeat (a first medical-efficacy violation starts at the statutory floor; subsequent ones climb) — which is how a single campaign running across many posts turns into a seven-figure total. Amounts and criteria follow current regulations; treat the table as the shape, and check the latest text before relying on specifics.
What counts as a medical-efficacy claim (the NT$600,000-and-up category)
Language that implies a food or cosmetic prevents, improves, relieves, diagnoses or treats a disease or a specific physiological condition; that reduces disease-related bodily components (cholesterol, blood sugar, liver fat); that addresses symptoms or syndromes (menopause, constipation, allergy); or that invokes traditional-medicine efficacy (tonifying kidneys, nourishing blood). Quoting a classical text or a doctor to say the same thing is still the same thing.
What counts as exaggerated or misleading (the NT$40,000-and-up category)
Claims that touch physiological functions, organs and tissues, body-shape change (whitening, slimming, bust enhancement, “boosts immunity”), or that invoke official approval numbers or similar authority language — unless they fall within the regulator’s published lists of ordinarily usable phrases or approved nutrient-function statements. Note the regulator’s stated analysis of common violation patterns: emphasizing an ingredient’s physiological mechanism, fear-based or suggestive framing, before-and-after comparisons, and testimonials used to imply results. Each is a marketing habit foreign brands bring with them.
The rule foreign brands miss: everything is an ad
Product pages, packaging, KOC posts, live-stream scripts, Threads and Instagram shares by customers that you repost or incentivize, marketplace listings — all can be treated as advertising, and enforcement explicitly follows content on social platforms and online marketplaces. Reposting a violating claim can be penalized. The seller of record carries the exposure, which is why operators insist on claims review before content ships (the creator-brief mechanics are in our KOC guide).
Building a claims-safe message house
- Classify the product — food, certified Health Food, cosmetic, specific-purpose cosmetic, supplement — because the allowed vocabulary differs (category rules in the supplements guide and cosmetics guide).
- Translate the home claims into Taiwan’s three buckets: keep (ordinary descriptive and approved nutrient-function phrasing), rewrite (functional implications recast as ingredient facts and usage benefits), and delete (anything in the medical or body-change categories).
- Write one approved message house — headline claims, supporting facts, forbidden words — and feed every channel from it: label, product pages, KOC briefs, live scripts, ads.
- Substantiate what stays. Test reports and transparent ingredient information carry more trust with Taiwanese buyers than functional promises anyway (see brand localization).
- Review live content, not just static. Live-stream hosts improvise; give them a card of allowed and forbidden phrases and monitor the stream.
- Decide about Health Food certification deliberately. It’s the only route to functional claims for foods — a years-long investment for hero products, not a launch prerequisite.
FAQ
Can we say “helps digestion” or “supports immunity” on a food product?
Generally not — both touch physiological function. Ingredient-fact phrasing (what the product contains) and approved nutrient-function statements are the safe territory; functional promises require Health Food certification.
Are before-and-after photos allowed for skincare?
They’re a flagged violation pattern when they imply efficacy beyond cosmetic effect; cosmetic products may describe cosmetic results within the permitted vocabulary, not medical or transformative ones.
We only sell online — are we really monitored?
Yes. Health bureaus explicitly monitor marketplaces and social platforms, and the largest recent fines involved online and social advertising. Online is the most-watched channel, not the least.
Who pays the fine if an influencer over-claims?
The advertiser and seller of record are exposed; creators can be too. Your brief and your review process are the protection — and they’re standard in our Taiwan program for exactly this reason.
Say less, prove more
Taiwan’s claims regime rewards brands that market on facts and punishes those that market on promises — expensively, publicly, and per post. i-connect builds claims-safe message houses and reviews every channel’s content against them for the brands we operate. Send us your current claims and we’ll show you what survives in Taiwan.
Last updated: September 2026