Saudi Arabia: Misleading ads top Saudi FDA seizures
242 misleading ads prmoting false claims, scam products removed in four months
Abu Dhabi: As part of its commitment to protect consumers online, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority has coordinated a screening of websites, with the aim of finding out where consumers across the country are being subjected to content promoting false claims or scam products, local media reported.
The crackdown resulted in removing or blocking 242 misleading advertisements or product listings, with their promoters being fined for marketing without necessary permits as part of a high-level screening of online platforms, and an in-depth analysis of specific advertisements and websites linked to products in high demand, over the past four months.
The Saudi FDA also closed nine unlicensed warehouses in Jeddah that stored cosmetic products, and the total seizures amounted to about one million packages.
Precautionary measures
In Khamis Mushait, a warehouse violating food storage rules was shut down and 32 tonnes of foodstuffs were seized. Officials of five other businesses in Jeddah were summoned for questioning for failure to comply with preventive precautions to stem the outbreak of COVID-19.
A Riyadh company was closed for storing fodders without applying the necessary storage requirements, and 205 tonnes of violating products were confiscated.
Two residential apartments storing violating and expired cosmetic products were closed and 185,000 packages confiscated.
In the Eastern Province, 74,000 packages of unknown veterinary medicines were seized, and the facility was closed, and in the city of Tabuk, the FDA closed an illegal food warehouse and 25 tonnes of products were confiscated and destroyed.
The FDA closed a warehouse in the Jazan, which was operating without a license, and stored food at high temperatures. Some 111 tonnes of food products have been seized.
A warehouse storing cosmetic products in inappropriate conditions was also closed and 25,000 products were seized.
In Dammam, an unlicensed cosmetic product factory that produced and distributed unlisted products to cosmetic warehouses, was detected and 3,500 products have been seized and necessary measures taken against the manufacturer, the FDA said.
