PS11732 - ICA: coronavirus emergency, the Authority orders the removal of any reference to preventive effectiveness against COVID-19 of the products advertised and marketed on the www.oxystore.it website
PRESS RELEASE
On Friday 27 March 2020, the Authority launched an investigation, while at the same time ordering the removal, as an interim measure, of any reference to the preventive and therapeutic effectiveness against COVID-19 of the products advertised and marketed on the www.oxystore.it website.
The adoption of this urgent measure was considered crucial in order to stop the spread of an extremely serious practice, thus making the Authority’s intervention unavoidable.
In fact, the abovementioned website, after widely sponsoring the activity of oxygen therapy to cope with the Covid-19 virus - presenting it as "one of the most effective systems to treat symptoms related to the new generation Coronavirus" - offers for sale (at the price of 995 euros) a "prevention kit" described as "complete with everything you need to monitor and improve the immune response" and consisting of a stationary oxygen concentrator and various accessories.
The need for immediate intervention by the Authority is linked to the presence of rather emphatic and suggestive ways in which the healing and beneficial properties of oxygen therapy and oxygen concentrators in dealing with the Covid-19 virus are presented, which even go so far as to invite consumers to “stay one step ahead: avoid infection and get an oxygen concentrator" or to warn consumers that oxygen therapy is "the last bulwark" and that, specifically, "all that remains is to rely on the simplest and most readily available instrument on the market: the oxygen concentrator", which "is now proving to be a fundamental lifesaver both in prevention and especially in therapy"
In particular, the Authority found that the way the prevention kit is promoted and sold is prima facie misleading and aggressive, since the site exploits consumers’ judgement, impaired by the alarm caused by the constant increase in the number of people infected by COVID-19 and the risk of death as a consequence of contracting the virus.
The Authority, in view of the unique current circumstances, is continuing to monitor the market focusing its attention on operators active in e-commerce who adopt unfair and misleading behaviour.
Rome, 30 March 2020