[Exclusive] Wegovy Craze Fuels Illegal Health Supplement Ads... Oversight Falls Short [2026 Parliamentary Audit]

"Lose Weight Like Wegovy" Ads on the Rise
False or Exaggerated Claims Up 155%
Lee Sohee Calls for Practical Oversight System

As social interest in dieting grows amid the popularity of obesity treatments such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, the number of cases of improper advertising for health functional foods caught exaggerating weight-loss effects and other benefits has reached 180 this year alone. With the problem worsening in the absence of adequate countermeasures, critics say the monitoring and oversight system needs to be strengthened.

Rep. Lee Sohee of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee. Provided by Rep. Lee Sohee's office.

According to data obtained from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety by the office of Rep. Lee Sohee of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, 180 cases of improper online advertising for health functional foods containing terms such as "dieting," "weight loss," "fat burning," "Wegovy" and "Mounjaro" were detected from January through September this year.

This represents 93.75% of the 192 cases detected over the full previous year. Given the upward trend this year, the total is expected to exceed last year's figure by year-end. After declining steadily through last year, from 405 cases in 2023 to 257 in 2024, the number of cases detected is set to resume its upward trend for the first time in three years.

Of the types of improper advertising detected this year, "false or exaggerated claims" accounted for 66.67% of the total, with 120 cases. That was a 155.32% increase from the previous year. Many ads appear to exaggerate or make false claims when touting weight-loss effects. The increase also appears to reflect the growing use of marketing tactics that exploit the recent popularity of obesity treatments.

Although the problem is worsening, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's response has been limited to asking the Broadcasting Media Communications Standards Commission or the platforms carrying the ads to block the relevant websites. The risk of repeat violations is high given how easily ads can be posted online, but the ministry has not even identified the problematic businesses, citing difficulties in determining which ones are responsible.

Rep. Lee Sohee said, "False and exaggerated ads claiming that 'you'll lose weight just by eating this' have surged this year, riding the Wegovy and Mounjaro craze." Regarding the decline in the number of ads detected through last year, she also said, "We need to examine whether that was because more ads were slipping through the enforcement net."

Rep. Lee said, "Despite detecting more than 1,200 cases over the past five years, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has done no more than request that websites be blocked, and it does not even keep track of how many times the same business operator has been caught." She added, "At this year's parliamentary audit, I will call for a practical monitoring and oversight system that tracks and identifies repeat offenders, imposes tougher penalties on them, and clearly establishes platform accountability."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.