The Food and Drug Administration plans to prosecute 37 actors, actresses and net idols for false advertising of Magic Skin Co's products and police have summoned 13 of them.
Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta and FDA adviser Praphon Angtrakul announced the legal action at the Royal Thai Police Office on Thursday.
Pol Gen Wirachai said the FDA formally accused 13 people of violating cosmetics and food laws for their roles in the misleading promotion of the cosmetics and food products. Police summoned them to hear the charges from June 11 to 13.
The company's management had already been charged.
They were among 54 actors, actresses and net idols whom police had earlier questioned. The FDA was likely to take similar action against the remaining 24 of the group, Pol Gen Wirachai said.
Seventeen others of the group were fined up to 5,000 baht in the same case because their offences were not serious, he said.
Mr Praphon of the FDA said the 13 people facing the prosecution risked jail sentences for their claims that some products could reduce fat and permamently transform complexion.
The FDA prohibited fat-reduction advertising and no cosmetic could change complexion permanently, he said.
Advertising of food products with false information carries a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up to 30,000 baht while advertising of cosmetics with false information may lead to a jail term of up to one year and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht.
Those who had been fined faced the action because they were not authorised for food advertising, Mr Praphon said.