Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Ministry of Commerce has announced an initiative that uses artificial intelligence technologies to evaluate online stores.

This initiative was launched to coincide with World Consumer Rights Day, under the slogan Responsibility and Fairness of Artificial Intelligence for Consumers.

The initiative's goal is to allow merchants to understand the evaluation of their stores and offer them the opportunity to improve their scores by adhering to specified standards.

The Ministry has set out 11 standards for evaluating store compliance. These standards include displaying the commercial registry number, necessary licenses, and tax number on the homepage, registering the store's link in the registry and the Saudi Business Center platform, and providing policies for “protecting consumer data and privacy,” “replacement, return, and refund,” “dealing with customer complaints and suggestions,” and “consumer rights and duties for shipping and delivery.”

Additionally, the standards require stores to offer easy means of communication for customer service, ensure the website is secure and of high quality (considering site speed, ease of use, and HTTPS link with cybersecurity protection), and verify the absence of “unpaid” fines issued to the establishment.