New Zealand-owned and Australian-based A2 Milk has been fined $20,000 by the Chinese advertising and market regulator, the Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC).
The fine relates to the use of children in advertising and a campaign featuring Chinese actor Hu Ke and her son An Ji, promoting the company's milk powder product.
The online campaign, which aired two years ago and ran across popular Chinese social platforms such as WeChat, was found to have violated the countries strict policies about the use of children under the age of 10 in advertising.
An Ji was considered by the government regulator to be operating in a brand ambassador capacity for A2 at the time, despite being under the legal age.
"The a2 Milk Company has been in discussion with the Administration for Industry and Commerce over an advertising matter in China and has reached a mutual resolution to the satisfaction of both parties," a statement from the company said.
"The company agreed to pay a fine of 100,000 Yuan ($20,000 AUD) as settlement of this matter."
A2 was not alone in the fine, with 29 other brands also found to be in violation of China's strict online advertising regulations.
The announcement by the AIC follows the government's decision earlier this year to launch a country-wide investigation into advertising protocols.
According to statistics, in the first half of 2018, the national industrial and commercial and market supervision departments investigated 8104 Internet advertising cases, a year-on-year increase of 64.2%.
AdNews understands that the crackdown on advertising and the inclusion of A2 milk in the report is reflective of the growing difficulties Australian brands encounter when dealing with China's 'vague' regulations.
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