RIYADH: Half the deaths in traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia are caused by fake car parts – including brakes and tires – that are imported to the Kingdom, according to Judge Ahmad Bin Dhaifallah Al-Ghamdi, chairman of the 11th Administrative Circuit at the Administration Court in Jeddah. He said that incidents caused by the counterfeit parts result in 3,000 out of the Kingdom's 6,000 annual traffic fatalities and noted the Saudi authorities seized 8 million fake products in the first half of 2010. Al-Ghamdi shared his views and information in a working paper he presented at a forum held in Riyadh for protecting Arab consumers from commercial fraud and fake goods. The seizures of fake products happened at a time when the Saudi Standards Organization has established 14,000 specifications and standards, but Al-Ghamdi's paper said that the real applied specifications and standards are far below than those established by the authorities. Al-Ghamdi said statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Planning, in collaboration with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, show annual losses in the Kingdom due to commercial fraud total SR41 billion. The annual US production based on counterfeiting and piracy has reached $650 billion and 7 percent of world trade is in fake goods, according to the paper. The judge said in his paper that the first article of anti-commercial fraud law, which defines fake products, also clearly shows that if commercial fraud is discovered, the judiciary must report the matter to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution. The article also specifies that those involved in commercial fraud face a SR500,000 fine, two-year jail sentence or both.
