MCI has announced the start of inspection tours on lighting lamp markets in all regions of the Kingdom earlier this week. This campaign aims to combat the commercial fraud in the lighting lamp markets, especially regarding the fraud and counterfeiting the country of origin and the trademarks, as well as using phrases such as "Made in Germany "or "Made in UK"to mislead the consumers.
MCI has pointed out that the inspection tours would verify the irregularities, related to the lack of writing the technical data on the product, such as voltage, watts or amps, also the lack of writing the trade name or the manufacturer trademark or the local agent, as well as verifying how far does the technical information, written on the outer cover, match the one on the product itself or the standards after testing, also the lack of writing the supposed life of the product, beside putting the price tag.
This came after the Ministry had made a survey on the markets earlier to take some samples for testing and to see how far they are in conformity with the Saudi Standards, Metrology &Quality Organization, and then to specify the defective samples to be withdrawn from the local markets by MCI inspectors.
According to Anti-Commercial Fraud Law, Whoever made, produced, sold, transferred, distributed, offered such adulterated items in the market, would be liable to penalties, which may reach to imprisonment and a fine of one million riyals, in addition to the confiscation of the fraud goods and any relevant tools.
It is worth mentioning that MCI teams had carried out seven inspection tours in various parts of the Kingdom during the last four months, including the campaigns on “Know Your Right”, “Household Electric Heaters, “Gas Stations Inspection Tours, “Following up the Profession of Brokerage, “Anti-Commercial Concealment”, and “Electrical Cables. During these inspectiontours, more than 17643 trade institutions had been inspected, and the number of violations reached 4210.
MCI calls on all consumers to lodge their complaints about any fraudulent or counterfeit lighting lamps through the toll free number 1900, or through the application of a Commercial Notification.