The Cosmetic Physicians Society of Australasia is concerned that deals on group buying sites advertising Botox treatments may breach guidelines around how medicines and medical services can be marketed.
The comments come after a number of group buying sites offered deals for beauty treatments, including Botox procedures, with some site operators saying they have operated to the letter of the law.
CPSA president Gabrielle Caswell says the association is not against group buying, but warns the sites to stay away from advertising for scheduled medication, which is covered by a number of different laws and regulations.
“There are certain rules and regulations in this country and that is how our medical system works,” she says.
“If you’re going to get one of these treatments you need to get a good outcome and at the price these are advertised you may not get adequate treatment.
“Many people are also failing to understand what they’ve been injected with.”
Caswell says the issue is that buyers are pre-paying for medicine whereas they wouldn’t do that for other types of treatments such as medication for blood pressure or other ailments.
“I think Scoopon and sites like it are good from a marketing opportunity but we have laws that regulate this,” she says.
“Pre-buying your medication before you have a physical examination with a doctor is not acceptable.
“That is breaking the guidelines of the national medical board and there can be fines involved.”
The controversy comes weeks after retail giant Myer announced it would be offering Botox and beauty treatments to shoppers, with Caswell saying she will be “interested” to see how that is handled.
“Even doctors that are connected to shopping centres need to adhere to the same rules,” she says.
The guidelines of the Australian Medical Board state that practitioners cannot publish advertisements that “offer time-limited discounts or inducements.
Group-buying site operators say they have followed the rules and Spreets chief executive Dean McEvoy says his site doesn’t run Botox deals.
“We don’t run them. We ran a deal once for a company that had a phone number with the word Botox in it. Our position is that it’s not the thing to do,” he says.
Scoopon general manager Jon Beros says the site does not advertise these deals, although did confirm it ran one deal 10 months ago before the site was fully aware of its regulatory obligations.
“This particular deal was done about 10 months ago before we were aware of this position. That deal is very old, and as soon as we had legal advice explaining that position we have refrained from advertising those services.”
“That was the first time we ever did that, and we weren’t 100% across the guidelines of what was acceptable. We actually pulled that offer halfway through.”
But Beros says while the CPSA is correct in saying it cannot advertise goods that are banned under legislation, and Botox is one of them, it can still advertise a number of different treatments.
“We can advertise a number of products. For instance if there are anti-wrinkle procedures on the site, they don’t necessarily have to be Botox, and it’s up to the buyer to decide what’s best for them.”
Beros also says normal beauty treatments are fine to be advertised.
McEvoy says it’s up to the medical industry to regulate businesses that are advertising those services.
“We sign off on the copy that is going to be used but it should be up to the medical industry to make sure that it is regulated,” he says.
McEvoy pointed to Jump On It and Scoopon, which he says run deals for Botox. Jump On It was not available for comment.
Cudo chief executive Billy Tucker says no Botox deals have been advertised on his website because he was told when the site was set up that they were against medical regulations.
“We are very familiar with the guidelines and with running TV ads you have to operate by those guidelines to get approved. Running time-limited offers on medical treatments are very much against the law,” Tucker says.
“Because of the limitation of TV ads we have a full-time lawyer here and they review every single thing and make sure it’s legal.”
Caswell says many businesses advertising the Botox services are not members of the CPSA.
“Our members need to sign a declaration when they join. However the advertising ultimately rests with the practitioner,” she says.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
