Despite the measures taken by governments to combat commercial fraud, these operations continue in the world, especially in our region, which depends on lot of foreign imports. In addition, there are some fraudulent industries for products and materials in the region, where fraud occurs in packaging, production and expiry dates, which greatly affects people’s health, productivity and daily movement.
Over the past months, we have read a lot of messages published by social media platforms in this regard urging to take measures towards those who carry out commercial fraud in goods, whether they are imported from abroad, or those that are manufactured in the region.
Recently, one of the GCC countries referred 228 cases of commercial fraud to authorities with the aim of arresting violators and enhancing consumer awareness of their rights and duties towards these issues.
There are many laws which deal with these cases in the Gulf countries, including deportation of expatriate workers if they commit these crimes, and preventing them from entering later in accordance with the laws of trade, investment, and health. Commercial fraud is violation of the provisions of the regulations adopted by countries, because it is considered a deceptive matter in Shariah, whether it results from the product itself or an error in its components or qualities, in addition to fraud that occurs in the process of sorting, weight, size and standard. Fraud operations do not only occur in food products and commodities, but also extend to necessary luxury goods, entertainment and others.
Whoever cheats or attempts to cheat with any product is considered a violation, as well as whoever sells or displays the fraudulent product for the purpose of trading knowing fully well that it is fraudulent, or manufactures products that violate the specifications and standards approved by official institutions, whether in the way they are packaged, processed, stored, transported and labeled contrasting publications with the aim of promoting false and fraudulent marketing.
From this point of view, the authorities concerned in the countries are keen to continue their efforts to control any violation, while governments have established institutions that work to protect consumer rights, and take legal measures against manipulators and violators who have committed crimes against consumers.
In the Sultanate, over the past years, we have followed up on a number of commercial fraud cases, especially in the field of food products, while today there are many other cases that have been referred to the authorities concerned related to the fraud in food, recreational or service products, some of which are punishable by imprisonment and financial fines, in addition to defamation of institutions.
Within its tasks, the Public Authority for Consumer Protection works to follow up on these issues and coordinates its efforts with other government institutions in order to address and reduce the phenomenon of commercial fraud and counterfeiting.
The phenomenon of commercial fraud is one of the negative phenomena that affect foreign investment operations and the economic progress of countries, in addition to its negative effects on consumer safety, health, security and safety. There are international institutions such as the Intellectual Property Institution following up on these issues, as fraud in production means losses for the original institutions that own these products.
