The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) caught 112 violations in April during its intensive campaign to ensure the compliance of suppliers (retail outlets) with Law No. 8 of 2008 on Consumer Protection. The nationwide campaign by the Ministry’s inspectors found violations like missing price tags for products and services, failing to issue complete invoices, providing with false or misleading product descriptions, failing to display prices in Arabic and failing to offer service guarantees for an appropriate period or refunding customers.
Violations also included failure to report defective products that may cause harm to consumers to competent authorities, non-compliance with promotional offers, not using Arabic in ads and description of goods, lack of displaying expired or substandard products, selling with higher prices than advertised, or offering discounts without obtaining approval of competent departments.
The penalties resulted in administrative closures, as well as fines ranging between QR5,000 and QR 30,000 in line with the applicable consumer protection laws. The following is a breakdown of the type and number of violations registered in April 2017. The Ministry said it will refer those who violate laws and ministerial decrees to competent authorities that will in turn take appropriate action against perpetrators in order to protect consumer rights.
The Ministry urged all consumers to report violations to the Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud department.
