Market dealers, competitors harmed

KUWAIT CITY, March 31: The Misdemeanor Court acquitted a Kuwaiti citizen who was accused of inciting commercial office owners to manipulate prices. The case was filed by the Competition Protection Agency. According to the case file, the citizen incited the owners of commercial offices to manipulate the prices. By asking the Director of Legal Affairs in the agency, he reported that the citizen’s voice message went viral in which he could be heard urging the owners of offices to fix the labor prices at not less than KD 1,000.

This led to an increase in the labor prices and the lack of their quality which harmed the competitors and dealers in the market. When the citizen was questioned during the investigations, he denied the accusation against him, but he admitted that the audio recording belongs to him and that it was sent in a WhatsApp group of the owners of commercial offices. He insisted that sending the audio message was not intended to harm them, as they were discussing prices, given that there is no sponsorship from outside.

During the trial session, the defendant was represented by Lawyer Abdullah Al-Alanda, who submitted a defense memorandum, at the end of which he requested the acquittal of the accused from all charges leveled against him. The court said in the merits of its judgment that it doubts the validity of attribution of this crime to the defendant, because the investigation failed to establish the accusation, let alone the fact that he denied the charges leveled against him.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff