Saudi Arabia: 184 Chinese websites shut down for marketing fake goods

Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s Commerce Ministry has shut down 184 Chinese websites for targeting the Saudi market with poor and adulterated goods and fake offers, and taking advantage of social media platforms to promote those goods, local media reported.

The website also failed to offer consumers the option of return and exchange and after-sales services and instead deluded buyers with the quality of the offered products, Al Jazirah newspaper reported.

The online store had begun to advertise its goods in Arabic and as soon as it was blocked it created five other websites that were pursued and blocked, and then established 184 sites with the aim of attracting the largest number of buyers in the Saudi market and misleading the regulatory authorities.

Consumer goods

They offered, through its multiple links, many adulterated consumer goods including electronic devices, perfumes and cosmetics, bags, shoes, clothing, personal care devices, and others.

The ministry blocked all these sites that do not include the store’s data, address and contact numbers along with customer service.

It urged the general public to deal with trusted stores, and not to respond to ads promoted through social media for unknown and unreliable foreign websites, and to report them through https://mci.gov.sa/C- app or on the toll-free telephone number 1900 or the website of the ministry.