RIYADH: About 40 percent of retail stores in Riyadh do not put price tags on products they are sellilng, said Solaiman Al-Buthi, general manager at the Environmental Health Department in Riyadh Municipality Tuesday. Al-Buthi said the law that protects consumers' rights stipulated that all products displayed in retail stores should have a price tag and that failure to do so is a violation of the regulation. “We have launched a campaign last Saturday to ensure that every retail store in Riyadh Region should follow the law stipulated to protect consumer right, failing which is punishable by fines and closure of the premises,” said Al-Buthi. As part of its job to implement the law, the Environmental Health Department has deployed teams of inspectors to visit retail store and warned those that failed to follow the law, he said. During the inspection over the last 10 days, Al-Buthi said the inspectors found that about 40 percent of retail stores, including restaurants, coffee shops, shopping malls, baqala and other retail outlets were found to have violated the law. The inspectors were ordered to persuade the retailers to put price tags on their products as it is the consumers' right to know the price before buying a product, he said. In keeping with the campaign, the department advised consumers to report erring stores by calling its hotline 940 which was set up to attend to consumers' complaints. He said the retail stores that failed to abide by the law would be served a warning notice and fined SR5,000 or closed if found to violate the law repeatedly.
