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THE government is being urged by experts to do more to raise consumer awareness on rationalizing consumption and saving.
The Kingdom’s official agency tasked with protecting consumer interests, the Consumer Protection Association (CPA), said people need to have faith in the goods they buy and the government can help by protecting them against greed and unethical business practices wherein fraudulent methods are used to cheat consumers, Al-Riyadh daily reports.
Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani, secretary-general of the CPA, said the association strongly believes that enhancing the role of consumers in society and raising awareness among people is the key to protecting consumers against all forms of commercial fraud.
“The CPA has recently developed a program called the Smart Consumer, which uses social networking websites as a platform to raise consumer awareness about their rights and duties and provide them with ways to identify fraudulent practices. The program also keeps them posted on the latest developments related to the market and products. We have so far issued booklets to help consumers understand their rights and monitor their health. All this information is available on our website www.cpa.org.sa,” he said.
Unethical pricing
According to Al-Qahtani, the current penalties imposed on any business that tries to monopolize or manipulate prices are insufficient and need to be more deterring to nip such negative practices in the bud. Part of the problem, he admitted, was that some government agencies refrain from naming and shaming merchants who abuse consumers’ rights while others do not attach great significance to the complaints filed by consumers against certain merchants.
Al-Qahtani believes that naming and shaming manipulators and monopolists in the media can help combat unethical business practices.
The CPA recently launched a consumer index that measures the level of satisfaction on products and services.
“We measured consumer satisfaction on telecom providers’ services. Over 10,000 people participated in the electronic questionnaire, which is sufficient proof that consumers want to voice their opinions and see that their rights are protected. We have also launched several initiatives to raise Saudi consumers’ awareness levels on different issues,” said Al-Qahtani.
“Unfortunately, counterfeit products are being openly sold in the market because current anti-fraud measures have failed to deter businesses from engaging in such practices. Consumers are supposed to report fake products to the CPA but many are not doing so either because they do not care or they are not aware of the fact that they can help CPA combat negative practices,” he added.
According to Sami Al-Othman, a member of the Arab Federation for Consumers, only consumers can protect themselves against such negative practices, especially in light of the absence of strong consumer associations.
“The majority of Saudi people buy items just for the sake of consummation, not because they need the items. This is because some Saudis easily fall for misleading advertisements while some cannot fight the urge to buy stuff and consume. Therefore, the concept of buying should be explained to consumers so that they differentiate between buying and consumption,” he said.
Al-Othman also believes the pertinent authorities should intensify monitoring and control measures to prevent merchants from selling fake products. The Ministry of Commerce and Investment’s red-tape measures for reporting fraudulent activities are a little bit complicated and are not processed quickly, he added.
Lawyer Thamer Al-Sakaker agreed and said the CPA should do more than raise consumer awareness about these practices.
“Most people have a negative impression about the CPA’s performance and efforts toward fighting fraudulent activities in the market. The CPA should change this perception and play a more active role in ending these practices,” he said.
