100.000 Visitors Attend these Exhibitions
The Ministry of Commerce and Investment held 13 Awareness Exhibitions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, last week, in all regions of the Kingdom, in conjunction with the World Consumer Day, which falls on the 15th of March each year. This is part of MCI initiative "Know Your Right" aimed at informing the consumer about his rights.
These 13 exhibitions, with 100.000 visitors, convey several awareness messages aimed at promoting the principle of rights and educating the consumer and the trader on the implications of selling and purchasing process, besides raising the value of transparency and clarity in business transactions, also protecting the consumers against deception, fraud and price exaggeration or variation.
Pictures and illustrations about the consumer's right attracted the attention of visitors, who preferred to take photographs with them. MCI Awareness Campaign (Know Your Right) included several phrases and messages to raise awareness of consumer's rights, such as the campaign of (Take the Rest of Your Money). This is to inform the consumer about his right to take the rest of his money in Halal when purchasing, as well as the campaign ( The Warranty is Two Years). This is to ensure that the warranty of electrical and electronic appliances in the stores and markets are not less than two years, if it is less than that, it is considered a violation. The visitors also interacted greatly with the Gold and Jewelry section, as well as the section of buying and selling through websites.
The exhibitions also included a presentation of some chapters of the Consumer Right Guide, in addition to distributing some copies of this Guide to visitors.
The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has launched recently the Consumer Right Guide, which is considered the comprehensive reference to all the rights and duties of consumers. The Ministry provides through this Unified Guide more than 50 Consumer Rights through six chapters. The first chapter contains the General Consumer Rights, regarding the commercial data for all goods and products. Chapter Two contains the Durable Goods, which deals with the procurement of new goods and products, such as electrical appliances, vehicles, maintenance, spare parts and other rights related to this type of goods. Chapter Three focuses on the general rights related to replacement and return. Chapter Four contains the consumer awareness on Sales, Discounts and Competitions Rules & Regulations. Chapter Fifth covers consumer rights in relation to Food and Provisions Legislations. Chapter Six highlights the mechanism of giving incentive rewards to those informing about trade violations. The Consumer Right Guide had been launched in conjunction with the Consumer Protection World Day 2018.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Commerce and Investment interacts with the consumer and raises his awareness towards his rights through all the media channels, field events and the control campaigns carried out by its inspectors. MCI has allocated a toll free number (1900) to receive all consumer reports and complaints. The consumer can lodge his complaint as well through the application of a Commercial Violation Report, or via the Ministry's website.