Minister of Economy Chairs Consumer Protection Higher Committee Meeting

His Excellency Al Mansouri: “We seek to strengthen social stability for citizens and expatriates through facilitating a fair consumer environment in the UAE”

Dubai-UAE: 29 June, 2014 – His Excellency Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy, today reaffirmed the Ministry’s priority to ensure the highest levels of consumer protection, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan.

His comments came at the second meeting of the Higher Committee for Consumer Protection for 2014. The earlier meeting was held in May this year.

Chaired by His Excellency Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, the meeting drew representative committee members from the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Health, Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry, as well as Economic Departments, Municipalities, UAE Society for Consumer Protection, and the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology.

Al Mansouri said: “A fair consumer environment creates social stability for citizens and expatriates.  At the Ministry of Economy, we work closely with relevant federal and local authorities to safeguard the interests of our customers and increase their awareness of consumer rights. The efforts of the Consumer Protection Department and the Higher Committee for Consumer Protection have to date proved commendable in curtailing monopoly and price hikes attempts.” 

As part of the second meeting, the Higher Committee for Consumer Protection examined topical issues such as regulations for the resolution of commercial violations, mechanism of informing companies with decisions related to price increase, updating the revised price of consumer goods on the Ministry’s website and the product recall process in the UAE. The committee members also reviewed all requests for price increase submitted since the last meeting in May.

The Ministry of Economy prohibits any price increase without a prior written approval from the Consumer Protection Department. A company that wishes to increase the price of a product submits the current product price, the prices of similar alternative products in the UAE and the GCC markets, production costs for the last three years, company budget for the last three years, percentage of price increase, and the date of the last price increase. The Ministry then conducts a thorough evaluation of the proposal before approving or rejecting a request for price hike.