The Ministry of Commerce has caught 24 promoters, both male and female, for breaching the e-advertising regulations governing social media websites as stipulated for in the E-Commerce Law and its Implementing Regulations.
The offenders committed four violations on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Twitter platforms as follows: deceiving and misleading consumers by using fallacious advertisements, promoting an unlicensed business activity and failure to disclose that they were making an advertisement.
The perpetrators, 10 male and 14 female, were slapped with varying degrees of punishment in the form of fines for violating the E-Commerce Law and the E-Advertising Regulations.
The activities the violators promoted included: restaurants, medical clinics, perfumes, watches, accessories, women's fashion, furniture, sportswear, electronic applications, and financing companies.
The E-Commerce Law and its Implementing Regulations stipulate that an electronic commercial advertisement must carry a statement indicating that it contains promotional material. Furthermore, a business must not promote a brand that the business does not have the right to use or a phony brand. The law prohibits the use of material that misleads or deceives the consumer.
The Ministry closely monitors these advertisements and sends violators to a committee that handles violations of the E-Commerce Law. Fines can reach up to one million riyals including blocking and closing the websites and banning them from engaging in any commercial activity.