JEDDAH — The Ministry of Commerce and Industry closed down a local perfume factory in Al-Khumrah in south Jeddah on Wednesday for placing “Made in France” stickers on locally made products. Over 72,000 boxes of perfumes ready for sale were seized. Samples were sent to the laboratories for analysis before they were destroyed. The factory owner was summoned for investigation before the case is referred to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution. The factory was closed down after the ministry's teams in Jeddah raided its building, located in an area full of warehouses. Apart from the boxes of perfumes, supervisors found 1,600 “Made in France” stickers, a special machine for printing stickers and 200 barrels of perfume oil each weighing 50 kg. The ministry said the factory had produced several other perfumes bearing the names Al-Hajar Al-Aswad (The Black Stone), Hajar Al-Ka'aba (Ka'aba Stone) and Jannat Al-Firdous. The perfumes the factory was trying to pass off as made in France bore well-known trademarks. They used to coordinate with a number of distributors to sell them to shops in different locations of Jeddah. The ministry stressed it would not be lenient in penalizing those who violate its regulations or do not uphold consumers' rights and replace fake or damaged commodities. It called on consumers to file their complaints at the ministry's reports center through the toll-free number 8001241616.
