UAE Cabinet approves new laws to safeguard community, business

Abu Dhabi: The UAE will continue developing its legislature and laws to safeguard its community from different crimes and to protect national markets from all types of frauds, while protecting consumers with the best international systems and standards, said His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The statement was made by Shaikh Mohammad while he was chairing the Cabinet meeting Sunday morning at the presidential court. The meeting was also attended by Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs. [caption id="attachment_21476" align="aligncenter" width="475"] Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum chairs on Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, which was also attended by Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance.[/caption] During the meeting, the Cabinet approved the new federal law regarding the combatting of commercial fraud and human trafficking crimes. Shaikh Mohammad stressed that the amendment of consumer protection laws, combatting commercial fraud laws, and making new relevant legislations comes in line with the government’s directives to build markets with a high transparency profile, where both consumers and sellers enjoy their full rights and obligations. He also said that protecting the consumers will enhance the principle of transparency and neutrality in the business sector, adding that making new laws to protect consumers will regulate markets and step up their standards, while reflecting the keenness of the state in protecting people from any harmful practices that may take place in local markets. The general rules of the new draft federal law covers all forms of commercial fraud such as selling or keeping merchandize which is fake, spoilt or counterfeited, advertising bogus awards and prizes, and banning misleading advertisements. The draft federal law also emphasized the punishment for food stuff and medication violations because these violations affect humans, animals, and the environment. The draft law sets the mechanism for dealing with merchandize which is fake, spoilt or counterfeited where it obligates the importer to return the merchandize to its original source within limited time, or else they must be destroyed. The draft law also stipulates other punishments for multi commercial sections department stores and other violations. Accordingly the “Higher Committee for Combating Commercial Fraud” was set up by the Cabinet, to be chaired by the the Deputy Minister of Economy. The committee will study reports on fraud referred to it by specialized authorities and will take the appropriate measures, while studying the penalties stipulated by the draft law and the obstacles that may face the law’s application and suggestions for overcoming these obstacles. WAM