Hello, this is Attorney Choi Jong-ha from Cheongchul Law Firm.

The Medical Act regulates the advertising activities of medical institutions quite strictly, and in particular, providing monetary gifts is prohibited as it is a typical patient inducement act. However, it is also true that it is quite frequent to give gifts to customers visiting a newly opened clinic or to distribute leaflets on the street with small gifts like wet wipes. So, what is the range of gifts that are allowed?

In principle, the court's position is that as long as the provided item has economic value, it can be considered a patient inducement act, even if its value is low. The Seoul Administrative Court stated, “Whether the item the plaintiff intended to provide has economic value sufficient for the receiving customers to enter into a treatment contract with this hospital depends on the individual's inner motives or subjective intentions, so as long as the item intended to be provided has economic value, its size cannot be an appropriate standard for judging whether this act constitutes an act of inducing patients for profit.” This clearly indicates that even providing inexpensive gifts may be considered a violation of the Medical Act.

 However, not all gift-giving is prohibited. (1) For events like grand openings or anniversaries, (2) providing very small gifts tends to be recognized as behavior within social norms.

For example, in a case where toothbrushes and leaflets were distributed around the time of the grand opening with advertisements stating 'Scaling 3,000 won, 20% discount on treatments not covered by medical insurance, resin 50,000 won, free fluoride application', the Seoul Eastern District Court ruled that it did not constitute a patient inducement act based on the fact that “the advertising period was only 2 days, the price of the distributed toothbrushes was only about 500 won at wholesale, and the period during which the defendant performed treatments, such as removing tartar for a fee of 3,000 won, was only about 5 days” (Seoul Eastern District Court, judgment on March 23, 2017, case no. 2016No1306).

So, what about holiday gifts? While it may be considered behavior within social norms in the sentiment of our country, unfortunately, providing holiday gifts, which tend to have a certain price, is likely to be recognized as illegal inducement behavior. In this regard, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has expressed that even if holiday gifts are given only to patients visiting the hospital, there is a possibility of being recognized as a violation of the Medical Act.

Those who operate a hospital or act on behalf of hospital promotions would naturally want to attract customers through slightly more effective marketing, but such marketing activities must avoid situations where a suspension of qualifications or business is imposed, making it impossible to provide treatment. This is why thorough legal review is necessary before executing or acting on medical advertising.