Recently, Ningbo Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau released information that Ningbo Hangzhou Bay New District Geely Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. was fined 600,000 yuan by Ningbo Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for using national, highest, best and other terms during the advertising release process.
According to the information of Qichacha , Ningbo Hangzhou Bay New District Geely Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. was established in 2019 with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. It is wholly owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. .
According to the provisions of Article 3 of Chapter 2, Article 9 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, "", advertisements shall not have the following circumstances: use terms such as "national level", "highest", and "best".
If any of the above illegal acts occurs, the market supervision and management department shall order it to stop publishing advertisements and impose a fine of not less than RMB 200,000 and not more than RMB 1 million on the advertiser. If the circumstances are serious, the business license of can be revoked by , and the advertising review agency will revoke the advertising review approval documents and will not accept their advertising review application within one year; for advertising operators and advertisement publishers, the market supervision and administration department will confiscate advertising fees and impose a fine of not less than RMB 200,000 and not more than RMB 1 million. If the circumstances are serious, the business license can be revoked.
It is understood that as early as October 31, 2021, Geely Automobile Group held the "Smart Geely 2025 - Geely Longwan Technology Gather and Global Power Technology Brand Release" event at the Hangzhou Bay Research Institute.
Geely Auto released its power technology brand - Thor Power and intelligent hybrid platform - Thor Zhiqing Hi·X at this event. At the same time, Geely Auto Group CEO O Ganjiayue also released the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy and comprehensively promoted the "Nine Dragon Bay Action" to implement "Smart Geely 2025".
At this event, Geely Auto used extreme words such as "national" many times to promote and advertise its brand products.
This behavior of Geely Auto Group violates the provisions of Article 57, item (1) of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China and constitutes an illegal act of publishing prohibited contents of advertising. Ningbo Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau issued a penalty decision on Ningbo Hangzhou Bay New District Geely Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. on August 17, 2022.
This is not the first time that Geely Auto has been punished for improper release of information.
On May 12, 2022, Geely Auto Group posted a tweet titled "The King of Mixed War, Anyone Who Has Tried It Says Good" on its WeChat official account "Gely Auto". The article compares the product of Geely Automobile Group, Thor Hi-X oil-electric hybrid version with the Japanese "Two Tian" series of cars.
The above advertising article violates Article 13 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China and constitutes an illegal act of using advertising to devalue the goods of other producers and operators. Geely Auto was also fined 10,000 yuan by the Hangzhou Hi-Tech Zone (Binjiang) Market Supervision and Administration Bureau on August 1. At present, the tweet has been removed from the shelves.
According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, in September 2022, Geely Auto's narrow passenger car retail sales were 109,000 units in a single month, ranking fourth in the retail sales list of car companies during the same period. In the sales rankings of independent car companies during the same period, Geely Auto's sales were second only to BYD Auto , surpassing Changan Auto , ranking second in sales. However, what is not matched with sales strength is Geely Auto's public relations communication team, which was punished by law enforcement agencies twice a year for violating Advertising Law . This phenomenon is worthy of deep thought.
