Shanxi Provincial Administration for Market Regulation has intensified oversight of senior care services, health products, and other key sectors to safeguard elderly consumers' rights, publishing a set of typical enforcement cases from its special rectification campaign.

These cases highlight violations ranging from false advertising of health products through private livestreams to unlicensed food operations in care facilities, demonstrating the regulator's commitment to cleaning up the market for senior services.

The first case involves Yuncheng Market Supervision Bureau penalizing a convenience store operator for promoting "Bei Tong Yun Xian Coenzyme Q10" and "Black Gold Thermal Light Energy Blanket" as treatments for heart conditions, thrombosis, and arteriosclerosis via private WeChat livestreams disguised as health lectures. Inspections showed the products only met general health food or home appliance standards, lacking any proven therapeutic effects, constituting false advertising under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

This case is typical of covert private-domain livestream marketing targeting middle-aged and elderly groups. The operator used the guise of "health lectures" to spread false efficacy claims through WeChat groups and mini-programs, seriously misleading consumers, and the enforcement serves as a warning that even closed online spaces are not beyond legal scrutiny.

In Taiyuan's Jiancaoping District, a health experience store was penalized for promoting ordinary food items "Aobo Marine Star Worm Capsules" and "Selenium-enriched Phyllostachys Flavonoid Selenium Tablets" with claims of lowering blood pressure, dissolving blood clots, and preventing disease. The store lured elderly customers with free trial sessions of a multifunctional therapy device while delivering misleading product presentations through PPTs and videos.

The operator fabricated treatment uses for various ingredients and invented staged consumption plans to encourage bulk purchasing, violating the same anti-unfair competition provisions. This case highlights community-based health experience stores as high-risk points for deceptive marketing that exploits elderly health anxieties.

A Jincheng City trading company was penalized for fabricating patient recovery stories to sell ordinary home exercise equipment. The operator invented a narrative about a 39-year-old stroke patient regaining the ability to walk independently within three days of using the device, without providing any evidence to substantiate these claims.

The enforcement underscores how private WeChat groups have become hotspots for irregular marketing, where ordinary exercise tools are packaged as "miracle recovery devices" targeting vulnerable elderly consumers who may lack the ability to discern false claims, thereby violating their rights to information and fair dealing.

In Shuozhou City, a senior care facility was found displaying unauthorized promotional banners claiming designation as a provincial "Elderly Care Happiness Project Pilot" and "Senior University" without proper credentials. The facility could not provide documentation proving its claimed government-backed project status, constituting false advertising that improperly leverages official prestige to gain trust.

The case demonstrates how care providers using government project names and false qualifications can more easily obtain elderly consumers' confidence, and the regulator advises that all promotional claims must be substantiated with verifiable evidence to prevent deception.

Yangquan City's High-tech Zone branch penalized a health consultation center that provided free hydrogen inhalation services while promoting "Dehong Multifunctional Hydrogen-Oxygen Machines" as capable of preventing cancer and eliminating harmful free radicals. Since the device is a standard household appliance rather than certified medical equipment, its advertised therapeutic benefits lack scientific and legal basis, with enforcement warning consumers against using home appliances as medical treatment.

The case serves as a warning about high-frequency tactics using free trial experiences to attract elderly customers, and the regulator reminds the public to verify whether health devices hold legitimate medical device registration before purchase.

In Datong's Pingcheng District, a department store was penalized for extensive promotional activities including courseware distribution, employee WeChat forwarding, and livestream links to market "Earth Dragon Protein Amino Acid Tablets" with claims of dissolving clots, lowering blood pressure and blood sugar, and improving osteoporosis. These disease-treatment claims for an ordinary food product violated advertising regulations, and the case illustrates how multiple channels are used to target elderly chronic disease sufferers.

The regulator emphasized that ordinary food products must never carry disease prevention or treatment claims, and merchants must adhere to legal standards when promoting goods to this demographic.

Yangquan's Pingding County regulator investigated a senior care service company that produced fried dough sticks with aluminum residue measured at 617mg/kg, exceeding the national standard limit of 100mg/kg. Kitchen staff had used baking powder containing aluminum additives during preparation, serving the contaminated food to elderly residents and employees.

This enforcement effort aims to address common misconceptions where operators treat food additives like ordinary seasonings, ignoring national standard limits. The penalty highlights the importance of standardized kitchen management in elderly care facilities to safeguard this vulnerable group's food safety.

In Jiexiu City, Jinzhong, a health center was found storing honey with no label whatsoever in its canteen. The unlabeled product, purchased from a local supermarket, lacked crucial information such as production date, shelf life, ingredients, and storage requirements, posing direct health risks to elderly residents with lower tolerance for food safety hazards.

The case reinforces food labeling compliance obligations and encourages care facilities to establish robust procurement verification processes to prevent improper food handling and storage that could threaten senior residents' health.

Taiyuan's Xinghualing District regulator penalized a biotechnology company selling "Sturgeon Collagen Peptide" on the 1688 platform for falsely advertising itself as a high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production, testing, and sales. The company actually held only ordinary food sales qualifications without any self-owned production or research capabilities.

The enforcement clarifies that food sellers must not fabricate production and R&D credentials in advertisements, and the penalty serves to protect consumer rights based on corporate capability claims while maintaining orderly competition on e-commerce platforms.

Finally, a Pingyao County ophthalmology hospital in Jinzhong was penalized for publishing 11 advertisements on its WeChat official account that exceeded its approved Medical Advertisement Examination Certificate scope. While displaying the approval number, the actual ad content included medical technologies, treatment methods, and unauthorized use of medical personnel images and titles for promotion, covering services like cataract surgery and vision correction increasingly sought by elderly patients.

This case demonstrates that possessing a valid medical advertisement certificate does not permit exceeding its approved scope, particularly when promoting elderly-targeted ophthalmology services. The regulator stressed that medical institutions must strictly conform to certified ad samples and avoid improper marketing using healthcare professional images or unverified treatment claims, ensuring elder consumers receive accurate health information.