Sharjah, September 30: The Sharjah Municipality has confiscated and destroyed 10,975 fake items from 72 shops and vendors selling them in subways.
The items included watches, mobile phones and accessories, clothes, pirated CDs, perfumes, shaving machines, medicines and food items considered unfit for human consumption.
Fahad Al Shuhail, Head of the Consumer Protection Department, said on Tuesday that these items were seized during an intensive campaign launched recently by the department against sale of fake products and misuse of trademarks to protect consumers from illegal trade practices.
The market monitoring section of the municipality recently cracked down on vendors moving about in subways and other areas selling several types of spoilt, expired and fake products, including food items.
The municipality is making all efforts to reduce the number of such vendors, who will face stringent punishment, including deportation.
“Selling goods in the subways and on pavements is illegal in Sharjah. We have not issued licences to any seller to sell goods in the subways and definitely not fake and counterfeit products. In fact, the municipality has made great efforts to fight forgery and fraud in a bid to enhance the confidence of manufacturers and consumers. The municipality will take all possible measures to curb the offence and implement the law,” Al Shuhail said.
Though municipal inspectors spotted a large number of fake products and misuse of trademarks in some of the shopping centres, the shop owners said they did not know that these products were fake.
The municipality launched the comprehensive campaign under the provisions of the Trading Law No. 4 of 1979 and Federal Law No. 37 of 1992 on trademarks to end such practices, the official added.
–Agencies