Aaliya Al-Shalhoob Al-Riyadh Newspapers recently published a report on fake electric products by the Saudi Specialized Laboratories Company which is a partner of the Saudi Customs department. The study showed that 80 percent of electrical products available in the Kingdom are fake and do not meet Saudi standards, let alone international standards. The fake products were blamed for 33 percent of fires in residential homes. In 2015 alone, there have been 34 million fake products in the market of which 53 percent were seized. Are these figures not shocking and scary? Statistics show that we are losing SR20 million a year due to commercial fraud. Can it be that 80 percent of electric products sold in our markets are fake? These products are dangerous and using them can lead to injury or loss of life. Have the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Consumer Protection Society, the Customs Department, and the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization failed in protecting us from these products? Frankly speaking, there are a large number of counterfeit products in the marketplace. There are merchants who are using us to make quick profits at the expense of our safety. These merchants do not care about our rights. We will be in big trouble if the Ministry of Commerce and Industry does not conduct an extensive crackdown on the market and impose heavy fines on those merchants who import fake products. Our markets have been hijacked by merchants who do not fear Allah and will go to any extremes to make money.
