The UAE Ministry of Economy is working on the final stages of a new draft law to combat commercial fraud and counterfeiting, which is expected to be enforced next year.

Commercial fraud and counterfeiting are central issues that directly affect economic growth and public safety, and limit innovation and creativity apart from generating huge loses for companies and governments, UAE Minister of Economy, Sultan Al Mansoori, said.

He reiterated the importance of the new draft law for consumer protection, which includes amendments to some articles of the current federal law number 24 for the years 2006 to punish any attempt of fraud through more financial penalties starting from Dh5,000 ($1,361) and up to Dh1 million ($0.27 million).

Al Mansoori praised the efforts of the department of commercial control at the Ministry, which has coordinated with local authorities involved in combating commercial fraud, and organised around 19,000 inspection tours at in UAE during the first nine months of 2011 and imposed 1473 fines.

Of the total inspections, 8,072 were directly related to consumer protection, 10,063 related to counterfeit goods, 558 to assess whether copyright laws were followed, 109 to ensure that laws of trademarks were being practiced and 186 tours to factories.

From these inspections, 772 fines were issued in relation to consumer protection, 595 for counterfeit goods, 71 with respect to copyright violations, 31 related to trademark laws and four during the inspection of factories.

To educate the public and the business community, the Ministry held a series of workshops for the private and public sectors, and also held a conference to combat commercial fraud.

It also participated in international and regional conferences related to censorship laws as well as took part in trade fairs and exhibitions. – TradeArabia News Service