The Ministry of Health on Saturday confirmed that it was not mandatory to acquire permission to advertise food and beverage products.
A previous announcement from the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) put on the government gazette demanded all food and beverage service providers to seek permission to advertise their products.
Many individual and small-time food and beverage service providers began complaining about the regulation, and called it time-consuming to acquire permission for the advertisements separately.
The regulation attracted criticism, calling it would dampen the business of smaller or individual service providers.
MFDA however, on Saturday issued an amended statement, confirming that food and beverage service providers are only required to seek the authority’s permission to advertise, if they intended to boost the popularity of the product.
The authority said regular social media marketing to advertise availability of food and services by restaurants or other service providers did not require permission. However, competitive advertisement approaches, in which advertisements of competitors are used to draw comparisons, will be subject to requiring permission from the ministry.
The application to advertise under this new regulation is available via ‘Dhirithi Portal’, the Ministry of Health confirmed.
The maximum duration for these advertisements will be three years, the ministry added, and noted that any changes to an advertisement would require seeking a new permit and treat it as a new advertisement.