The inspection teams of the Ministry of Commerce seized 1,196 counterfeit smartphones, in addition to more than 322,000 products including headphones, chargers, stickers, and other items, at the premises of a violating establishment in Jeddah Governorate.
A monitoring and investigation operation, launched after counterfeit phones were seized in Riyadh, led to tracing their source in Jeddah and raiding the violating site — in cooperation with the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, and Jeddah Governorate Police. Three expatriates were apprehended — two of Asian nationality and one of Arab nationality — for exploiting the establishment to engage in commercial fraud.
It was found that the expatriates had been converting Chinese-made smartphones — legally imported into the local market — into devices resembling two well-known brands by reprogramming them and applying brand labels, with the intent of reselling them.
The Ministry’s inspection teams proceeded to close the violating premises and refer the individuals involved to complete legal procedures and apply the prescribed penalties against them.
The Ministry of Commerce continues to pursue violators of the Anti-Commercial Fraud Law due to the deception and harm it causes to consumers. The law stipulates penalties of up to three years imprisonment, fines of up to one million SAR, or both, in addition to public naming and deportation of violating workers.