Wednesday 13 / November / 2024
Muscat: A rogue’s gallery of counterfeit goods is helping consumers spot the difference between real and phony goods on sale in the Sultanate.
“I always thought there is nothing like counterfeit (goods) in Oman. But inside the gallery the battle between original and fake goods is real,” Toheed Ahmed, a mid-level executive at a perfume selling company told the Times of Oman (TOO). “Thank God there is no replica of our products,” he said at the gallery on the ground floor of the headquarters of the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP). The visitors said the attempt could successfully help in the fight against phony and spurious goods flooding the markets.
Unexpected Goods
Walking around the gallery one can find plenty of unexpected goods. Omani caps (or Kumma) are showcased amongst bogus sunglasses and hair oils.
“We seized these caps sometime back from various markets. We found some traders are purchasing second-hand Kumma. Then they wash the headgear, repack it and sell it as new,” said one the PACP’s female employees managing the gallery.
On other shelves one can find English breakfast tea, biscuits, and even washing powder.
The products have even been marked with original and counterfeit stickers to help visitors recognise the difference between fake and genuine goods. Further ahead, a Stanley-brand handsaw and clippers are juxtaposed with their replicas inside a glass frame.
The gallery displays a counterfeit of bathroom accessories, toothpaste, toilet cleaners, olive oil, ketchup, corn flakes, soft drinks, noodles, sun flower oil, Basmati, rice, tea bags, movie DVDs, knives and blades, mobile phones, nail clippers, socks, traditional Omani attire, printing machine cartridges, soaps, skin creams and other household things.
Public Awareness
Earlier in February, PACP claimed to have collected more than OMR960,000 from businesses in the Sultanate, who were found to have violated consumer laws. This recovery was made in the year 2015 following up on the complaints of consumers. The process of lodging a complaint is simple.
Either the consumer can call the PACP office to register the complaint or visit the office in person.
Once the complaint is through, consumers are told to submit the original invoice. Then the trader is called and the officials settle the dispute face to face. For example, explained one PACP official, a trader had sold a used cell phone to a consumer in a new packet.
“After receiving the complaint, we made the trader pay back the money plus the penalty of violating consumer laws,” he stated.
PACP officials say the seized goods are worth millions of Omani riyals.
“PACP is a mere six-year old agency and the goods we have seized are worth millions of riyals,” Omar Faisal Al Jahadmi, deputy chairman for PACP’s Consumer Services and Marketing Monitoring wing told TOO.
The exhibition of counterfeit items, he said, has helped immensely in raising public awareness in the Sultanate. PACP officials also said the pro-consumer agency’s website regularly updates the database of counterfeit products.
“In 2015 alone, about 4,693 people visited the gallery. This has helped our consumers to a great extent,” Al Jahadmi said.
