Singapore legislation
Regulation 5
Regulation 5
Content of advertisements
Subregulation 1
A licensee must ensure that any advertisement that is published, disseminated or conveyed, or caused to be published, disseminated or conveyed, by the licensee or an authorised person (if applicable) complies with all of the following requirements:
the information contained in the advertisement —
must be factually accurate and capable of being substantiated; and
must not be exaggerated, false, misleading or deceptive;
the advertisement must not —
be offensive, ostentatious or in bad taste; or
undermine the honour and dignity of any healthcare profession;
the advertisement must not contain any information that —
implies that the licensee can obtain results from the licensable healthcare service the licensee provides that are not achievable by other licensees;
creates an unjustified expectation from the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee;
compares and contrasts the quality of the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee with the quality of the same licensable healthcare service provided by another licensee; or
deprecates any licensable healthcare service provided by another licensee;
the advertisement must not contain any photograph, picture, video or film showing the appearance or a feature of any individual before and after, or only after, receiving any treatment —
whether or not the photograph, picture, video or film creates an unjustified expectation from the treatment; and
whether all the photographs, pictures, videos or films relating to the same treatment are contained in one advertisement or more than one advertisement;
the advertisement must not contain any laudatory statement (including a statement of prominence or uniqueness) or superlative to describe the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee;
except as provided in regulation 14, the information contained in the advertisement must not contain any review, testimonial or endorsement about the licensable healthcare service provided by the licensee, including the services of any healthcare professional or employee of the licensee in relation to the provision of the licensable healthcare service;
the advertisement must not provide information in such a manner as to amount to soliciting or encouraging the use of the licensable healthcare service provided by any licensee.
Subregulation 2
To avoid doubt, paragraph (1)(d) does not prohibit a licensee, any healthcare professional or any employee of the licensee from showing to a patient, during a consultation by the patient, any photograph, picture, video or film that shows the appearance or a feature of the patient or any other individual before and after receiving any treatment provided by the licensee.