Electronic cigarette manufacturers were punished and forced to make changes to their misleading advertisements, the nation’s antitrust watchdog said on Monday.

The Fair Trade Commission said that electronic cigarette firms have falsely advertised that replacing regular cigarettes with electric cigarettes is effective in quitting smoking.

Although the health-improving effect and safety of electric cigarettes have long been disputed, the public can easily conceive the wrong impression of electronic cigarettes by taking the advertisement literally, the FTC said.

The controversial advertisement include phrases such as “excluded harmful substances in regular products,” “includes no cancer-provoking substances” and “the signature supplement device to quite smoking,” which the FTC labeled as deceptive exaggeration.

The antitrust watchdog emphasized that electric cigarettes are cigarettes that include nicotine, and that they hardly have the effect on quitting smoking that the advertisement claims. The law identifies electronic cigarettes as cigarettes as well.

(joowonc@heraldcorp.com)