The Ministry of Commerce has defamed the owner of a commercial establishment, specialized in the trade of nuts, spices and foodstuffs in Dammam. The said Est. convicted of violating Anti-Commercial Fraud Law by cheating and forging the country of origin and expiry dates of goods and foodstuffs, as well as by possessing and offering corrupted products. This is considered a kind of cheating and misleading towards the consumers, since such counterfeit items may pose risk on the health and safety of consumers.
The Ministry has published a summary of the judicial ruling issued by the Criminal Court in Dammam, which includes a fine of one hundred thousand riyals, the closure of the violating Est. for a period of three months, confiscation and destruction of the seized products, and defamation by publishing the ruling in two local newspapers at the expense of the violator.
In details, MC inspection teams detected an Est. in Al-Khudaria neighborhood in Dammam. The labors used to fill spices imported from abroad in packages bearing future dates and change the country of origin to Saudi Arabia, in addition to poor storage of foodstuffs.
More than 26 thousand kilos of counterfeit spices and cardamom were seized, in addition to the tools used in cheating and forging, including two million empty packages, 1500 cartons, stamps used for forging dates and names and more than 500 posters bearing future dates. Accordingly, the Est. was closed and the case was referred to the relevant authorities, besides a court ruling was issued condemning the offender.
The Ministry of Commerce confirms the continuation of addressing those violating the Anti-Commercial Fraud Law by taking stern measures and imposing the legal penalties against them, in view of the fraud and deception towards the consumers. The Rules & Regulations related to Anti-Commercial Fraud Law stipulates penalties that may reach to three-year imprisonment, fines up to one million riyals or both , Defamation in two local newspapers at the expense of the violator, deportation of the illegal labors from the Kingdom, besides the suspension and prevention of practicing the same commercial activity.
MC urges the consumers to lodge their complaints and reports on the violating establishments through MC Consumer Call Center (1900), or through the application of a Commercial Violation Report, or via the Ministry’s official website.