“Health” launches 150 lawsuits due to misleading advertisements – Society

Among the violations was a case of an advertisement disguised as news on the TVI website, which led the tax authority to impose a fine of 1,000 euros, paid voluntarily. What was at stake, according to the tax authority, were “the advertising messages published, even with an editorial appearance”, and there was also a “violation of the principle of transparency” since it was not “correctly, completely and clearly identified” who was “responsible for the exploitation of the establishments targeted by the advertisements”.

In another similar case, the culprit was the company Ecco-Salva Medical Services, which also paid a fine of one thousand euros for “advertising health works and services” carried out “in the form of news, on the website of the newspaper “Dinheiro Vivo”.

In question, a news article titled “For the first time in Portugal, Uber Eats service that takes a doctor to your home,” which constitutes a “violation of the principle of transparency” because the entity providing health care has not been identified “in a correct, complete and understandable way.”

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No license
Many violations come from entities advertising health services without obtaining an operating license or registration.

Searching operations
This year, ERS conducted 27 personal inspections and 37 non-personal inspections, resulting in 152 administrative violation cases.

315 cases in 2023
Last year, the Tax Authority filed 315 cases of administrative violations, while in 2022 there were 76 cases and in 2021 only 25.