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Sell what you advertise, DED advises sellers

When you advertise a product or service, what you advertise should match it, says Abdul Aziz Al Hathboor, Director of the Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection section at Dubai’s Department of Economic Development (DED).

The UAE has organisations to protect consumers at both local and federal government levels. These bodies review product standards and rules on their safety and quality to ensure they comply with GCC as well as international specifications.

Since 1946 the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has been laying down international standards to vouchsafe the quality of products and testing and inspecting them to provide certifications. These certifications facilitate sales globally.

The ISO 9000 certifications are given to products meeting the standards specified in the USA, Canada and Britain.

As standardisation and certification are key to boosting consumers’ confidence, the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (EASM) has been established to regulate locally manufactured and imported products. The EASM works to create standards and upgrade them so that they match those used in GCC countries and global industries.

The Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection section works in collaboration with a wide range of departments. These include the health and food safety and control departments, municipal laboratories and the EASM.

It also consults quality and compliance boards and environment and water departments.

Other departments on board include those monitoring contamination of imported foodstuff and laboratories analysing animal feed. The DED, Al Hathboor added, is working on developing mechanisms to monitor products to the UAE that do not meet international standards and pose a risk to consumers.

Together with a network of bodies it informs consumers about defective products that are withdrawn from the 
market.

The DED also seeks measures that will ensure manufacturers and distributors alert the relevant authorities and consumers without delay when a product is found defective or hazardous.

Awareness campaigns pay off

Consumer awareness campaigns have borne fruit with consumers becoming more aware of their rights and striving to claim them, said Ayman Bilal, Senior Director at Consumer Complaints, Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection, DED.

As a result, the third quarter of this year has seen a 6 per cent increase in complaints lodged with Bilal’s unit. It registered 3,225 complaints in the third quarter while in the second quarter, there were 3046 complaints.

Bilal said the increase shows consumers are becoming more aware of their rights, especially after the campaigns that have been keeping them informed about the responsibilities sellers have to bear. More and more consumers are coming forward with their grievances also because Consumer Complaints is playing an active role in getting them addressed, he said.

According to the figures, most of the complaints were against the services and electronics sectors, partly due to the increasing consumption of these two sectors’ services.

In the third quarter of 2012, there was a 32 per cent increase in the number of complaints.

news@khaleejtimes.com