“美容貸”及類似廣告，一律停播！

China Bans ‘Beauty Loan’ Ads That Promise ‘Free’ Plastic Surgery

“美容貸”及類似廣告，一律停播!

Commercials for “beauty loans,” which commonly allow mostly young clients to undergo cosmetic treatments with no up-front payments but then hit them with higher-than-promised interest rates, can no longer be aired on TV, radio, or online, China’s National Radio and Television Administration announced on Monday.

國家廣播電視總局9月27日通知，禁止在電視、廣播或網絡上播放“美容貸”商業(yè)廣告。美容貸主要針對年輕客戶群體，通常是為他們提供先治療再付費的服務，但隨后收取高于承諾的利息。

The administration said many such ads promoted over-consumption and were “deceptive,” enticing people with phrases such as “free surgery” but neglecting to mention the true interest costs.

廣電總局表示，許多此類廣告宣傳過度消費，具有“欺騙性”，用“免費手術”等詞語吸引大眾，但卻忽略了真正的利息成本。

Such schemes have existed for years and are similar to recently banned “campus loans,” which targeted cash-strapped university students and then trapped them in debt. On Tuesday, China Youth Daily, the Chinese Youth League’s newspaper, reported on a case where a young woman took out a loan to pay for cosmetic surgery but wasn’t told the annualized interest rate would be as high as 27%.

“美容貸”已經存在多年，與近年被禁止的“校園貸”類似。校園貸針對的是囊中羞澀的大學生，讓他們背上債務負擔。9月28日，《中國青年報》報道了一個案例，一名年輕女性申請貸款支付整容手術費用，但沒有被告知年化利率高達27%。

Lian You, a Beijing-based lawyer specialized in civil and commercial contract disputes, told Sixth Tone that banning ads for beauty loans could be an effective way to thwart the companies behind them. He added that clinics often work together with loan providers only to later vanish and leave customers in debt.

北京一位專門處理民事和商業(yè)合同糾紛的律師連佑(音譯)告訴《第六聲》，禁止美容貸廣告可能是挫敗背后公司的有效途徑。他還稱，醫(yī)美診所經常與貸款提供方合作，但卻在事后脫身，讓客戶負債累累。

Fueled by celebrity worship and social media, China’s under-regulated plastic surgery market is expanding rapidly. Consultancy iResearch predicts that it will be worth over 300 billion yuan ($46 billion) by 2023, but in the same report noted that, compared to 13,000 legally operating clinics, there were 80,000 unregistered cosmetic surgery businesses in the country.

在名人崇拜和社交媒體的推動下，國內缺乏監(jiān)管的醫(yī)美市場正在迅速擴張。艾瑞咨詢公司預測，到2023年，醫(yī)美市場的價值將超過3000億元人民幣，但該公司同時指出，與13000家合法經營的診所相比，中國有80000家未注冊的整形美容企業(yè)。

With complaints about plastic surgery mishaps increasing, the government has begun taking steps to rein in the industry. Last month, a different department published plans to prohibit cosmetic surgery ads that played on people’s insecurities.

隨著有關整形手術事故的投訴不斷增加，政府已開始采取措施對行業(yè)進行管控。上個月，另一政府部門發(fā)布了關于禁止醫(yī)美廣告制造容貌焦慮的規(guī)定。