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Weighing scales to be tested for accuracy

Move to protect consumers in retail outlets

DCL officers verifying the accuracy of an electronic balance at a supermarket in Dubai. — Supplied photo

Weighing scales in about 150 outlets of major supermarkets, hypermarkets and co-operative stores in Dubai will be verified for accuracy within two months in a new initiative of the Dubai Municipality named ‘Accurate Balance’.

The Dubai Central Laboratory (DCL) of the municipality launched the initiative to ensure measuring instruments used in the businesses give accurate measurements and within the acceptable limits based on applicable international standards.

DCL had started a similar initiative in gold and jewellery stores last year. It has now chosen shops selling expensive perfumes and saffron, and the hypermarkets, supermarkets and co-operative stores which receive large number of customers and carry out several transactions on a daily basis.

“We are planning to conduct the verification process in these shops by the end of December,” Fareed Mohammed Ismail, the head of the Metrology Section of DCL told Khaleej Times.

The initiative will also cover smaller supermarkets, groceries, sweet shops, slaughter houses, restaurants, fish and vegetable markets, cargo companies and commercial outlets in airports in later phases.

He said eight officials from the DCL will make field inspections to perform legal verification of electronic balances.

“In particular, they ensure that the balances are accurate to international standards, that the measurements they show are clearly and correctly visible to the customer and that they use the international metric system.”

Upon completion of the series of tests, the legal metrology officer determines if the scale has passed or failed, following which he will put up appropriate stickers.

Apparatuses that pass the test will receive a sticker reading “verified”, while those that don’t will receive a “rejected” sticker. A rejected apparatus will not be allowed to be used for trade in the Emirate of Dubai.

“Retailers or wholesalers that continue to use rejected scales or try to tamper the Government seals will be considered as breaching Federal and Emirates laws and will incur legal action,” he warned.

The official said customers have the right to ensure that the measurements being done are visible to them and can also complain to the municipality if they suspect that there is any manipulation in the weighing apparatus by calling its customer care number 800900. However, he clarified that the initiative is not just meant to protect the rights of the customers. “It is to protect the rights of both the customers and the traders. A device can malfunction without the trader knowing about it and sometimes it could be the trader who is incurring a loss. So, we want to make sure that there is no loss for both the parties.”

The Director of DCL Hawa Bastaki pointed out that legal weights and measures are fundamental to a sustainable trading economy.

“The concept of sale and purchase cannot exist without them. In our everyday lives, people make many purchases that rely on their confidence in the system that ensures correct measures, and likewise businesses need to know they are trading in a fair marketplace where no one has an unfair competitive advantage,” she said in a media statement.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com